3 Keys to Peace in the ValleySample

Key 3: Openness, Transparency, and Community

Have you ever felt like you were in the worst season of your life, but you couldn’t talk to anyone about it? If so, you're not alone. Many people suffer alone in the Body of Christ.

However, suffering alone is not God's will for you.

Consider these things:

• At the beginning of creation, God created Eve (the first woman) because He said it was not good for man to be alone.
• In Proverbs 18:1, He says that people who isolate themselves are selfishly seeking their own desires, and that in their self-isolation they actually rage against God's wisdom.
• James 5:16 teaches us that openly confessing and discussing our problems with our family in Christ brings healing.

Friend, you are not alone in your pain. You are not the first person to have experienced your pain; other people are hurting just like you are, or have hurt in the past like you are hurting now. And God's Word says that He will use openness, transparency, and community with the Body of Christ to heal you.

Being open and totally transparent with one another is necessary if we really want to heal from our problems.

On the outside, your struggles may look different from mine—and mine from yours. However, at their core, we all have the same struggles. We all deal with sin (which is simply disobedience to God's Word), doubt, discouragement, need, loneliness, and other types of problems.

But there is healing in community.

When we confess our sins and faults to one another, healing comes. When we admit to our struggles with trusted brothers or sisters in Christ, they can pray with us and encourage us in the Lord.

Iron may sharpen iron, but no metal can be sharpened at all if it never meets with another surface.

Community—the meeting together of the saints in heart-to-heart transparency—is where we become sharp; where we find healing; and where we are strengthened in the Lord.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 tells us that we need one another.

If you are walking through a dark valley right now, I encourage you to find a trusted friend in Christ—or even a small group, like a Sunday School class at your church. Confess what you are going through to other people who also love God. As you do so, God's Word says that you will find healing and comfort.

Did this Bible Plan encourage you? If so, find more encouraging words to help you get through hard times here, on FromHisPresence.com!