There Must be Genuine Confession.
1.- There must be genuine confession.
If there is one thing which is more essential than anything else in our relationship with God, it is honesty. That is why confession is important. When we come before God we come admitting who we are and what we have done. When King David sinned, he prayed,
“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge” (Psalm 51:1-4).
That is a good prayer because it is an honest prayer. Take a few minutes to pray this kind of prayer. Don’t say the exact words, but in the same spirit of this prayer, confess your transgressions to God and ask him to have mercy on you.
Psychology
Today, psychology has become the new religion. Instead of admitting our guilt, we analyze our guilt and qualify it. We figure out why we are not guilty because of what someone else has done to us. We are not guilty by reason of insanity. That is not just a plea by criminals, it is an excuse ordinary people use all the time. They say, “I am not responsible for what I have done, because of the psychological and emotional scars from my past.” We talk about how our actions were understandable, and how we could not help doing what we did. We even argue that we were justified, and that if people only understood where we have come from they would agree. But confession means that I understand that I was wrong and that what I did was a sin.
Be Specific
There is something else important in this matter of confession. Confession must be specific. Some people are artful dodgers in the matter of admitting guilt. They can lie and redefine the simplest of terms. These people can even say that they were guilty of something, but never quite say what that was. They can put a spin on sin to make it sound acceptable. But They are not so different from most of us. We want to dance around the truth of our guilt and argue about definitions. We hedge and dodge and redefine our sin and we put a spin on it. And even though we might admit that perhaps we were guilty of something, we never quite get around to saying what that something was. Oh, we may have done some wrong things, but it wasn’t all that bad, especially when you compare it with what others have done. But when we come before God, there must be honesty. We have to tell the truth about ourselves. That is what confession means.
Call To Action
“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge” (Psalm 51:1-4).
That is a good prayer because it is an honest prayer. Take a few minutes to pray this kind of prayer. Don’t say the exact words, but in the same spirit of this prayer, confess your transgressions to God, be specific and take ownership of your wrongs rather than blaming others. Then, ask God to have mercy on you.
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