Day 05

It's probably safe to say that you've gotten a splinter in a finger at least a couple of times. Usually, they come out easily enough, and life goes on. But if you would ignore it, even if you could still use your finger, the pain would linger - and, if it were serious enough of a splinter, it could become infected. In fact, people have lost fingers when infections from splinters weren't dealt with properly.

Such a little injury can cause big problems if ignored. And we'll sometimes try to leave the splinter, hoping it will work itself out because we want to avoid the pain of removing it. Dealing with the splinter does cause some pain, but it's necessary for real healing to take place.

If you've ever wronged someone (and let's be honest - you're human, so you have), you know that just pretending like it never happened doesn't really fix anything. Just ignoring it doesn't make it all better. More often than not, it can cause serious damage to your relationship if it isn't addressed, even if it were a relatively small offense.

Today, our prayer & fasting focus is on confession, the practice of agreeing with God that our sin is sin, making efforts to bring reconciliation where wrong had been done, and trying to do life differently moving forward. Unconfessed sin is one of the biggest pitfalls to healthy relationships - with God and with others. If we want to grow in our prayers, we have to grow in our confession.

In His Hands,
Grace Church