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Are we good at confession?
Webster’s Dictionary defines confessing as to tell or make known. We live in a society that love certain types of confessions. We love to confess the faults of others (gossiping). We love to confess the positive aspects about ourselves (bragging). Think back to yesterday, did you make known a fault of someone else’s? Did you make known one of your positive aspects? If so, you confessed. So, most of us confess regularly between ourselves, and some of us have become very good at it.
However, we are generally not so good at confessing if God is in the picture. We love to tell God of other people’s faults and the good we have done. Yet, many of us fight and struggle to tell God our faults (sins). We do not like that word – sin. We tend to use other words like fault, mistake, error, etc. The word sin quickly gets to the heart of things. It highlights the worst in us; things we wish to hide. Yet, God already knows anything we could confess to Him, the good, the bad, and the ugly. So, why do we struggle to confess things to God? Is it denial? Are we scared to admit it to ourselves? Is it a power struggle?
Our sins, the ones we do not what to ‘make known’ to God were put on the head of Christ two thousand years ago. Jesus, the Lamb of God, takes away ours sins, just as the scape-goat carried the sins away in the days of Moses and Aaron.
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 and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:8-9
I think we are slow to confess because of pride and secondly a wrong understanding of God. The pride issue we just need to humble ourselves the other is a little harder. We have so many images of God. All through our life we hear preachers, we see tele-evangelist, our own imagination and our own fathers distort God’s image. If we could believe God’s word about Himself we would be quicker and more willing to confess. As Mike said at the cross all our sin was paid for past present future. When we confess we are confessing we sin and then acknowledging his already forgiveness. The moment we sin we are already forgiven. Our confession is simply voicing the truth of what we have done or thought and thanking Jesus for our forgiveness on the cross. The other point is that Jesus wants to draw closer to us when we sin not push us away.I think God wants nothing to do with me when I sin when the opposite is true. He wants to get closer to us and comfort us.
His word says…Hebrews 10:21-23 (New International Version)
21and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
Psalm 103:11-13 (New International Version)
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
13 As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;
Thanks Mike for your encouragement.
sin is so ugly. i hate to talk about it… to myself, others, and especially God. God help me when I fail to take it seriously, confess it, or preach about it. The cross is so horrific exactly because sin is.