“You said, “share your secret lives with others, at least one or two people” and I told my secret to one person, and surprisingly enough it’s been almost three days since I went to those porn sites. My question is this: I’ve been telling God about my porn addiction for years. How come I didn’t get this kind of relief after I told God? Isn’t God higher than man? Don’t I need to fear God than man?”

Excellent question!

If God was enough for a man, God would not have ever said, “It is not good for a man to be alone.”

Even Jesus had friends. Jesus would have been okay without the twelve Disciples but He had to show it to us how to do a Christian life. After teaching and preaching to the multitudes, Jesus always reverts back to His circle of friends, His Disciples. However, notice! All the twelve Disciples were not Jesus’ best and close friends. He used to tend to be with John and Peter. They were His close friends to whom He used to share His deep secrets. They were the only ones who saw the transfiguration of Jesus. And that is why John wrote this: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.” (1 John 1:1)

Without having brothers and sisters in our lives, we can’t follow Christ. We can go to church, sing, pray and read the Bible but, we can’t grow in spirit. We can’t claim our victory over addiction on a daily basis. Listen what the Word says: “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! – – – For there the LORD bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.” Psalm 133: 1, 3b (Notice: He bestows or gives blessing and LIFE)

We can find that blessing and life when we fellowship with others. If we could have been able to do a Christian life alone, we would have read in the Bible a story of someone who did it. But, Beloved, a “lone ranger” kind of story is only found in the movies, or books of fairy tales, not in the Bible.

Listen to another Bible verse: “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” James 5:16

We can’t find a verse that says, confess your sin to God and pray hard and you shall be healed.

If we continue doing our Christian life alone, we will be like “clouds without rain, springs without water or mist driven by a storm” which has nothing to give to anyone. (Proverbs 25:14; 2 Peter 2:17 and Jude 12)

This is the one Bible verse which convinced me of the fact that I needed the help of brothers and sisters:

“If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?” 1 John 4:20

How can we love the people we have no fellowship with? We can’t! When we see them carrying our burdens, when we see them loving us after we tell them our brokenness, we learn to love them back. We also learn to give to others the very thing we want to receive from others; that is love. So we learn love those who share the worst secret of their lives with us .

Our love to God is proven only through our love to others. We can’t love brothers and sisters without opening up our hearts and lives to them. Love requires free heart, soul and mind for it to flourish in our life.

You are free from the addiction after you tell others because now you prove to God that you are real! You prove to God that you are serious about your life with Him. When He sees that you tell to the people you can see and touch, He knows that you are seriously seeking a righteous life.

God wants us to have a horizontal as well as a vertical freedom! Yes, God heard your secrets, and you have already received your vertical freedom but without telling your secret to your brothers/sisters, you can’t have a complete freedom God wants you to have. Without the horizontal freedom, you will stay in bondage.

So, let’s stop fighting and giving excuses to not to tell others our secrets! Let’s find God’s blessing and life He bestows to the body of Christ as we put our lives and brokenness on the hands of our brothers and sisters. Let’s enjoy our complete freedom which is only found as we say “yes” to God to open up our hearts for others to come in to our lives. ///