Can I Make a Confession?

 

“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.  The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim what we have seen and heard, so that you may have fellowship with us.  And our fellowship is with the Father and with his son, Jesus Christ.  We write this to make our joy complete.  This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light and in him is no darkness at all.  If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.  If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and purify us from all unrighteousness.”  I John 1:1-9

So, if I just say I sinned he will forgive me?  Does that sound a little too easy?  That is the beauty of the grace of God.  He has made salvation so simple, a pre-schooler can do it!  He stands ready, willing and able to forgive us.  All he asks from us is that we confess our sins to him.  When we do, he unleashes forgiveness, cleansing and purifying into our lives. He washes away things that are unrighteous and restores us to righteousness.

What a gracious God we serve!  There are things I have said, done or thought in my life that make me unworthy to ever stand in his presence.  In fact, they would justifiably send me into an eternity of hell.  But when I just use my mouth, name my sin, take ownership of it, he just makes it disappear!

But here is the hard part: pride.  Stinking pride often stands in the way of us wanting to admit we have done wrong.  I am mad with so and so because they did thus and so to me (nice analogy, huh?).  Therefore, I run them through the mud to everyone that will stand still.  Now the time comes that God has convicted me of it for the fortieth time and I know I cannot go on without his forgiveness.  The tendency is to start with, “Lord, I am sorry I said what I said, but they never should have done that to me…”  Pride makes us justify our sin rather than confess our sin.  Furthermore, sometimes in our pride we do not want to let go of our pet sin, rather we cling to it for dear life.

There are other times that we so hate ourselves for our wrongdoing that we find it difficult to admit it out loud or name it to God.  We have to work beyond all that junk if we are going to truly bring it before him in humility and repentance.

Another fan favorite is this:  “Lord, please forgive me of all my sins.  Amen.”  Ok, there is times that this type of prayer works.  But there are others times it simply will not fly.  We cannot just clump it together; gloss over it and keep going.  We need to own it if we want to be free from it.

I remember a time a number of years ago that I was feeling like my prayers were hitting the ceiling and bouncing back to me.  Ever been there?  I did not know what was wrong; I just did not feel close to God any longer.  I finally decided to start a fast because I did not know what else to do.  During my prayer time one day, I felt compelled to just start naming any sin that came to mind and asking God to forgive me of it.  You can’t over-repent, right?!  So I began praying, “Lord forgive me of lying, stealing, cheating, gossiping, murdering, committing adultery, being gluttonous, slandering, sowing seeds of division…”  If it was a sin named in the Bible I could think of, I repented.  Now obviously I hadn’t killed anyone or committed adultery, but we have to remember the holiness of God.  Jesus said if we hate, we commit murder.  If we look on someone to lust, we have committed adultery.  So I thought, who knows?  Maybe I was angry with someone without good reason, or looked at a movie star and thought, “Man, he’s fine!”  Regardless, as I began to go through and sincerely confess and repent of sin, I began to feel the weight fall off of me.  I began to feel so light and free. I had committed sin I was not even aware of on a conscious level! Before long there was no distance between me and God, only sweet communion.

In a day’s time there are so many opportunities to sin in thought, word or deed.  Lots of times we fail to practice a lifestyle of repentance and we overlook the need to confess.  As it builds up, our conscious becomes hardened and we do not even hear the convincing voice of the Holy Spirit as well.

Yep, confession is all it takes.  But we have to crucify the flesh and humble ourselves to do that.

Dear Lord, forgive me of taking you for granted.  For committing sin and failing to confess it to you.  Please wash away the grime that living in this world leaves on my spirit.  In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Sherri