Devotionals

Open Up: A Small Thing with Tremendous Benefits!

By ayu single · October 12, 2021 · 7 min read

Have you ever received advice to open up? Perhaps we have wondered, “Why should we be open? To whom? How far should I be open? Then, what is the benefit for me or for them, when they know my struggles?”

The questions above were also questions I once asked. In the past, I was not someone who opened up easily. If I did not truly trust someone, I would not let others know what was in my heart. I kept all my problems to myself. I felt capable of solving my own problems without other people's involvement.

However, as time went by, thanks to input from others, I learned to be open. As a result, I gained so many benefits from my openness. I could learn from other people's experiences without first falling into the same pit, I received relief, direction, valuable advice, and even healing.

Perhaps you are already eager to become someone who is open. However, we also need to be wise in opening up. Let us look at the following.

About What and to Whom Do We Need to Open Up?

We can be open about anything, such as the past, struggles, feelings, thoughts, the contents of our hearts , and so on. Being open is not the same as venting or gossip. In fact, sometimes we need to be open about unpleasant things, such as sin, and bitter experiences, which we have been keeping to ourselves all this time.

However, we need to choose the right person to whom we can open up. Opening up to the wrong person can backfire on us. The person we need to open up to is someone who is spiritually mature, someone we can trust, and someone who can support us in becoming better and more upright, such as a spiritual mentor for us.

From the Bible, we can learn from Hannah, the mother of Samuel. Hannah was sad because she did not have a child. Meanwhile, the other wife of her husband, Peninnah, hurt the heart of Hannah because she was barren.

Hannah poured out all her feelings to the Lord in prayer when she went to the house of the Lord in Shiloh (1 Samuel 1:9-10). This too is something we need to imitate, namely being open to God in prayer. He understands everything we go through and cares for us (1 Peter 5:7).

Besides being open to God, Hannah also told Eli the priest, a servant of God, about the struggle in her heart (1 Samuel 1:15-17). We need to be open to people who are spiritually mature, who can help us become better.

So, we need to be open to God and also to someone who is mature in faith about our thoughts, feelings, struggles, and so on. After we know to whom and about what we can open up, let us look at the benefits of being open.

3 Benefits of Being Open:

1. Knowing Ourselves

As human beings, we can have a blind spot, a point where we cannot see ourselves clearly. Well, that is one reason why we need to be open and let other people see us. Who we are, what our strengths, weaknesses, sinful nature, character are, and so on. However, this does not mean we let other people define who we are. Through openness, we are helped to see things about ourselves that perhaps we have not known all this time.

A friend once said this, “If we never want to open ourselves up, then we never truly know ourselves. For example, if we are too afraid to open a bandaged wound, then we do not know whether that wound has healed, is still festering, or is getting worse.”

Those words made me think. Opening up is indeed uncomfortable. Of course it is not hard to open up about good things or beautiful experiences. But telling bitter things, sad things, unpleasant things, embarrassing things, disgrace, or sin, certainly requires courage.

When we are not open, we do not know what is inside us. Is our heart already rotten and full of maggots? Or is our heart full of buried treasure, from which many people could actually be inspired, when we are willing to open up?

By opening up, we will know ourselves better. When we share what we feel, perhaps we will be rebuked, directed, given a new perspective, forgiven, and so on. Believe that this is good for us. Let not our ignorance, our ‘straightness’ in our own way, instead lead us astray.

The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but whoever listens to counsel is wise. – Proverbs 12:15

2. Bringing Healing

Continuing the wound illustration above. After we open that bandaged wound, only then do we know what we need to do next. If it has already healed, it does not need treatment anymore. But if it has not yet healed, we need to find a way to treat it according to the severity of the wound.

Being open can heal. That is the good news. It is written clearly in

James 5:16, “Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person, when prayed with conviction, has great power.”

When we open up and confess sin, our sins are forgiven and we become healed. Luke 15:11-32 records that the younger son who opened up and confessed his sin to his fatherwas healed. Meanwhile, the older son, who never expressed what he felt, was actually the one who was ‘lost’.

David, did not confess his sin when he watched Bathsheba bathing. His sin continued, until he slept with Bathsheba and caused the woman to become pregnant. Then he went on sinning by planning the murder of Uriah, Bathsheba's husband, so that his sin would not be known (2 Samuel 11). Only after the prophet Nathan rebuked him was David ‘healed’ (2 Samuel 12). If Nathan had not exposed his sins, perhaps David would have kept on sinning to cover up his sins.

Open up, so that our sins may be forgiven and we may be healed.

3. Giving Us So Many Good Things

Besides healing, openness gives us so many good things. From Hannah's story above, we see that in the end Hannah had a child. This was certainly because of the prayers she offered up wholeheartedly, Hannah's vow, and also, among other things, the prophecy spoken by Eli the priest for Hannah.

When Hannah told her problem, this was Eli the priest's response, “Go in peace, and the God of Israel will grant you what you have asked from Him.” - 1 Samuel 1:17

By opening up,

when we are weak, we can receive encouragement
when we are afraid, we receive strength
when we are sad, we receive comfort.
when we need guidance, we receive counsel and direction. When we sin, our sins are forgiven, we receive healing and relief, and perhaps a beneficial rebuke.

Through openness, we allow other people to enter our lives so that we do not have to struggle alone. We also gain many valuable lessons. We do not need to fall first, do we, in order to learn? Is it not better if we can learn from other people's mistakes? They can become God's extended hand that makes His work real in our lives. Therefore, open up!

Opening up to the right person can bring tremendous benefits. We can know ourselves better. We receive healing and so many other good things. Let us learn to be open, for your good, my good, and the good of us all! - Related Articles: