Although not a lot of people feel comfortable owning up to their mistakes, Pastor Rick Warren from Saddleback Church is encouraging people to do so, saying it's the secret ingredient that builds community faster than anything else.
People should risk honesty simply because it's worth the risk, he said in his website. God tells people that there are four benefits of being honest about one's mistakes, feelings, faults, and fears, he said.
The first is that it encourages healing. Warren quoted the Bible verse James 5:16 that says: "Admit your faults to one other and pray for each other so that you may be healed."
The well-known pastor added that there is a huge difference between forgiveness and emotional healing. "If you need forgiveness for something in your life, all you need to do is confess it to God. Emotional healing comes from telling somebody else," he explained.
The next benefit is that it gives people the blessing of a fresh start, he said. Warren used the Bible verse Proverbs 28:13 to illustrate this: "A man who refuses to admit his mistakes can never be successful. But if he confesses and forsakes them, he gets another chance."
The third is that God's power to change people can only happen once the guilty have humbled themselves before the Lord and confessed their sins. God resists the proud but He always gives grace to the humble, Warren said.
Lastly, admitting one's mistakes forges a deeper fellowship. "We think that if we're open about our fears, hang-ups, imperfections, and secret faults, people are going to think less of us," said Warren. "The opposite is true! Actually the more honest you are, the more people like you and want to be with you."
God wants to turn people's hurt into healing, he said, and all God is waiting for is people's surrender.
