The Connection Corner

Chain Breaking Honesty

James 5:16 — “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”

I kept checking the boxes.

Read my Bible? Check.

Said my prayers? Check.

And still I felt weighed down. I’d lie in bed at night and wonder, “What is wrong with me?”

I didn’t want to admit it, not even to myself, but the truth was, I was struggling with a sin pattern. It was one that kept cycling back up in my life, and it came with this private shame I could not shake.

And I had gotten good at covering it with “good Christian things.” I thought if I could stay busy enough with God’s stuff maybe it would go away.

But the guilt only grew heavier.

One Thursday, I went to my weekly Celebrate Recovery group really discouraged.

That night, someone read this verse out loud:

James 5:16 “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.”

I had heard that verse before, but I never noticed that last part.

Not just forgiven. Healed.

I knew how to ask God for forgiveness. I believed grace covered me when I failed.

But healing? Until that night, I did not realized that confessing my sin out loud to another human being could bring healing.

After the meeting, I pulled someone aside—someone I trust—and I told her the truth. The real, honest, ugly version of it. I confessed what I had kept buried and asked if they would pray with me.

She didn’t flinch at what I said. She just listened and then prayed.

I can’t explain it in any logical way, but the heaviness lifted. Something unknotted deep inside. I didn’t feel exposed—I felt safe. And free. It was like God used her voice and her prayer to reach a part of my heart that had stayed locked for years.

That’s the power of confession. It’s not a religious ritual. It’s not about earning grace or checking off a spiritual box. It’s about real, biblical healing.

James wasn’t writing theory—he was giving us a map out of the stuck places. Confess to each other. Pray for each other. Be healed.

If you’re exhausted from trying to fix yourself, maybe it’s time to stop hiding and start healing. Tell the truth to someone safe. Invite Jesus into the places you’ve been managing on your own.

You’re already forgiven, but you were made for more than that. You were made to be healed.

And it starts in the light.

August 8, 2025/by Brenda Price

Make Today Count

Daily Devotional, Tammi Arender

Hebrews 12:11 – For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

I was not the kind of kid who begged to be outdoors in the summer. I liked comfort, routine, and air conditioning. So, when my mother announced I would be attending back-to-back camps all summer long, I assumed she was joking.

She was not.

There was no negotiation. One week it was tennis. The next, basketball. Then came YMCA camp followed closely by dance camp. I remember thinking she must have mistaken me for someone else—someone coordinated, competitive, and social.

She had not.

She just loved me enough to be firm.

Her tough love was not up for debate, and though I wanted to resist, something slowly began to shift—not in her tough love, but in me.

There was this one camp—a Christian camp—where the rhythm of the days caught up with me in a different way. The mornings began with quiet time. It was the kind of quiet that made you think about things you usually avoided.

I learned to listen, not just to the camp leaders, but to my own choices. I noticed how much easier life became when I got enough sleep, ate what my body actually needed, and spent time with people who made me feel safe, not small.

At the end of the summer, I left with a small pin on my shirt that said, “Honor Camper.” It was just a pin, but it felt good because what I really achieved was a new mindset.

Looking back, that summer was not about sports or schedules. It was about learning how to show up for myself, for others, and for the Lord. And it turns out, showing up takes practice. It takes daily choices, honest reflection, and uncomfortable effort.

Maybe life is not all that different from summer camp. Every day, you get a fresh start. You can opt in or out. You can show up or shrink back. You can waste the time God gave you or let it change you.

What if you stopped waiting for a “big moment” and just lived today like it mattered? Try something new. Build honest friendships. Sweat a little. Laugh a lot. Choose the kind of effort that builds you from the inside out.

And remember—God did not give you this life so you could sit on the sidelines.

August 7, 2025/by Tammi Arender

Out of the Box Answers from a Great God

Daily Devotional, Lauren Kitchens-Steward

Psalms 37:4 – “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

Adoption has always been part of our family’s heartbeat. We had two children already—both adopted, both deeply loved. I would go to the ends of the earth for them, but tucked beneath all that joy was a desire I never spoke out loud.

I had always wanted to adopt a newborn, a baby from the very beginning. Though I didn’t really talk about it, I still whispered it to the Lord in passing.

My husband and I were both fifty-three. We were well past what most people would call “baby years.” Life was full. Our routines were finally starting to settle, but then the phone rang.

It was our Christian consultants. A baby had just been born, and they said the birth mother had asked for us.

I sat still. I think I forgot how to breathe.

She knew our age. She did not care. She said we were the ones she wanted.

And just like that, the thing I had quietly hoped for—the thing I thought might never happen—became real.

That birth mom’s trust became something more. It turned into a friendship. And that friendship has continued to grow.

That newborn is now six-years-old. His name is Chambers, and he still gets to see his birth mom every now and then. When he does, I just stand there watching him laugh, remembering how close I came to never knowing him.

I see a promise kept. I see a prayer answered. No it was not on my timeline, and it was not the way I expected. But it was answered in a way that proved God was listening the entire time.

Dear One, if you have a longing that feels too small to name or too impossible to see fulfilled—do not bury it. Hold it open. Offer it to the One who sees you clearly. He may not answer in the way you expect, but He is not bound by what makes sense.

He works outside the box, and sometimes, the answer comes wrapped in more love than you knew to ask for.

August 6, 2025/by Lauren Kitchens-Steward