“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
