Should I Keep This To Myself?

Discovering Ruth Q & A  10-7-26

Q:  What do I do when I’m struggling with serious problems that I want to share with someone but am too afraid to talk about?

A:  The first thing I want you to understand is that God absolutely did not intend for you to try to struggle on your own.

Oftentimes, the devil will lie to us to try to isolate us from other believers. He’ll say, “You are alone. No one else has your problem, so no one will understand your problem,” and it keeps us from ever admitting what’s going on with us.

Then something that makes it even harder is our own pride. One thing that I’ve learned about us as humans is that we don’t want to admit that we’re not perfect and that something is wrong. It is humbling to say, “I need your help. I need to tell you what’s happened.” It takes humility to do that, and humility doesn’t come naturally.

But no matter what lies you are believing or how hard it feels to talk to someone else about your problem, that is exactly what the Bible says you need to do. James 5:14 says, “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church.” You can see the instruction right there: If you’re sick, you’re not just supposed to stay home and not tell anybody — you need to call for the elders of the church! Immediately, the first thing that the Bible commands when you are struggling is relationship.

Then from that action of calling for other believers, the Bible says, “and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven” (James 5:14-15).

Friend, I have to be honest with you: I really do not see this happening so much in the body of Christ. Most of the time, I see people trying to be strong on their own, but look at what we’re missing when we do that!

You don’t have to be sick or struggling. You don’t have to stand there in silence and let the devil beat on you. You can call for the elders, call for your community, and let them stand with you. When you open yourself to that, this verse says that you will be raised up from your sickness, your difficult situation, and any sins you’ve committed will even be forgiven. There are such promises in this verse!