Change Your Life - Know Your Weakness
- Paul Downie
- 2 hours ago
- 22 min read
1 John 1:5-10 NIV
[5] This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. [6] If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. [7] 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. [8] If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. [9] If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. [10] If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.
I am quite a fan of police and legal dramas. Whenever a suspect is arrested, there is always the point when the police read them their rights and tell them, ‘You do not have to say anything...’. Then there’s the point when their lawyer will give them advice to not tell the police anything other than the bare minimum.
In some dramas, you get the rather unedifying spectacle of the perpetrator of a serious crime staring down their interviewing officers and growling ‘No comment’, at them, while their lawyer grins smugly beside them.
In other dramas, the suspect tells the police everything.
I am not a lawyer. I am not qualified to give out legal advice. But there is one piece of advice I can give you when you know you have sinned:
Tell God everything. Hold nothing back.
The invention of DNA testing was a leap forward in criminal investigation. It meant innocent people could go free, and it was much harder for guilty people to pretend they were innocent. Finding your DNA in the wrong place at a crime scene is as good as a ‘slam-dunk’ for the investigating officers.
But God’s knowledge of what you have done requires neither DNA testing nor CCTV nor crime scene investigators not forensic examiners.
Because He sees. He knows.
There is no point in hiding anything from Him:
Psalms 139:7-12 NIV
[7] Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? [8] If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. [9] If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, [10] even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. [11] If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” [12] even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
We have already looked at how we can cut ourselves off from sources of temptation and who is responsible when we succumb to it. Now we are going to look at what we should do about it and why.
What we should do about it is, I hope, plain to see in this and numerous other passages in the Bible:
James 5:16 NIV
[16] Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
Matthew 4:17 NIV
[17] From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
Mark 1:14-15 NIV
[14] After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. [15] “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
Acts 3:19-20 NIV
[19] Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, [20] and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus.
Matthew 3:5-6 NIV
[5] People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. [6] Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
Confessing our sins and repenting of them is a necessary step to ending our vulnerability to temptation.
But it isn’t easy. And it shouldn’t be easy. Think about it: if sin was a small and simple thing, Jesus would not have needed to be crucified. It’s because sin is so bad and because it is so addictive and because of the shame and pain associated with it that confession and repentance are just so hard.
So why should we do it? Why should we put ourselves through the difficult, and sometimes humiliating, process of admitting we got things badly wrong and did what ought not to be done?
This passage gives us three very good reasons. The first of these is because of Who God Is.
Who God Is
1 John 1:5 NIV
[5] This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
It’s often very difficult to work with people who have been hurt by other people. Learning to trust is such a huge problem. And I understand it. I really do.
It’s even worse if you need to share sensitive information about your weaknesses and failings, and much more so if these weaknesses and failings have caused you to succumb to temptation and sin. This information could easily lead to bad things happening to you if it fell into the wrong hands. You could be manipulated or wounded, the narrative could be twisted or exaggerated. Your reputation could be trashed.
You have every reason to keep this information quiet. To restrict it. To lock it down.
Everyone would understand why.
And yet:
Psalms 32:1-5 NIV
[1] Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. [2] Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against them and in whose spirit is no deceit. [3] When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. [4] For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. [5] Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” And you forgave the guilt of my sin.
Confession is good for the soul. That old saying is absolutely true. But you have to know to whom you should confess.
There’s an old standard that confession should be along the line of the sin. If it’s a public sin, the confession should be public. If it’s in the family, so should the confession be. If it’s private, so should the confession be.
There is a lot of wisdom in that.
But first and foremost, the confession should be to Jesus, because all sin, no matter the context or the effect, is primarily against Him.
The real issue, though, is can Jesus be trusted with our innermost, darkest secrets? Or does He have a hidden agenda or an ulterior motive?
Can we confess to Him safely and confidentially, without fear?
John said ‘Yes’. He said that Jesus, by His nature, is light, and is utterly devoid of darkness.
This is a common theme in John’s writings:
John 1:5 NIV
[5] The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:9 NIV
[9] The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.
John 3:19-21 NIV
[19] This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. [20] Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. [21] But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
John 8:12 NIV
[12] When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Revelation 21:23 NIV
[23] The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.
Light, for John, stands for a lot more than just hope. It stands for flawless integrity, complete transparency and a total lack of deceit or lies.
John’s message, therefore, is that Jesus can be trusted with our darkest, most humiliating, innermost secrets and our deepest confessions, because He is pure, He is righteous, He is holy, and there is not a scrap of dishonesty, deceit or hidden agenda in Him.
Jesus’ integrity is flawless. His honesty is absolute.
We cannot and will not find any reason to hide anything from Him.
Besides, He knows it all anyway, so we have nothing to hide because there is nothing we can hide.
So our first reason to make our confession is who Jesus is. Out second reason is Who We Are.
Who We Are
1 John 1:6-10 NIV
[6] If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. [7] 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. [8] If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. [9] If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. [10] If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.
I don’t know if you have ever been in a situation where someone who is famous, or wishes they were, has thrown their hands around in an almighty strop and yelled, ‘But don’t you know who I am?’
I haven’t had the misfortune to be on the receiving end of this from a famous or a powerful person.
I have from jumped-up middle-managers or personal assistants at work.
You see, there is a reality here. When someone has genuine power or influence, they feel quite confident about themselves and are aware that they don’t need to throw their weight around like a frustrated toddler to get what they want – they just have to ask nicely and they will receive.
But if someone is unsure of their power, their place or their influence and is not confident they will get what they want or need, that is the time when passions run high and tempers are frayed.
Because, you see, people who feel the need to throw their weight around and stamp their feet and yell and curse are doing so because their egos are fragile, their position is uncertain, and they only way they feel they can get what they want is to yell. The louder they yell, the more fragile they are.
For all their bluster, they are actually weak, pathetic, terrified individuals.
When they yell in our faces, ‘Do you know who I am?’, perhaps the pertinent response would be to reply, ‘Yes, but do you?’
The first thing any fascist dictatorship will do – whether it is right or left wing makes no difference – is to erase our consciousness of who we are and replace it with an identity in their image. It makes us much easier to control.
Christianity does the opposite. It reflects back to us exactly who we are so we can see what needs to change for us to follow Jesus.
But seeing that reflection is not always comfortable.
John here tells us the whole shocking truth about who we are:
We are sinners.
And he is not the only person in the Bible to tell us this:
Psalms 51:5 NIV
[5] Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
Romans 3:23 NIV
[23] for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
And as Paul later rhymes off, in an anthology of Old Testament quotes that reads like a police rap sheet:
Romans 3:10-18 NIV
[10] As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; [11] there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. [12] All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” [13] “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.” [14] “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” [15] “Their feet are swift to shed blood; [16] ruin and misery mark their ways, [17] and the way of peace they do not know.” [18] “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
We have all sinned. We are all sinners.
As I stated in an earlier post, the heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart. And that heart is in a pretty bad shape:
Jeremiah 17:9-10 NIV
[9] The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? [10] “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”
We might regard this as a serious accusation, as a stain against our honour, as an illegitimate and libellous rumour. We might stamp our feet and clap our hands and yell with furious indignation, but it will make not one bit of difference.
It is true.
We are sinners.
But not just in the generic sense. It’s quite easy for us to accept something bad about ourselves if everyone is the same situation. That way we’re no worse than everyone else.
However, the reality is that we are guilty of specific sins, of specific failures, of specific lapses.
How do we know this?
Because when Paul addresses the shortcomings in all of the churches he leads, he addresses specific issues.
Why would God treat us any differently?
The whole law is summed up by loving God, your neighbour and yourself (Matthew 22:37-40). Every thought, every attitude, every action that contravenes this summation is a sin. No matter what it is. No matter the reason.
Love is the standard. When we act out of anything less than love, we sin. End of argument.
What John teaches here is that it does us no good to be dishonest about it. If we are ever to grow more like Jesus Christ and fulfil His law of love, we must not sweep these issues under the rug. We must admit to them, confess them and repent of them.
Proverbs 28:13 NIV
[13] Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.
The Bible has several examples of people who sinned – and in some cases sinned gravely – but were not honest and upfront about them and suffered the consequences.
For example:
Cain became a restless wanderer (Genesis 4:9-16)
Achan perished because of his theft (Joshua 7)
David’s insidious cover-up of adultery led to the loss of his child and dreadful family issues (2 Samuel 12, 13, 14 and 15)
Ananias and Sapphira died because of their lies (Acts 5:1-11)
Concealing and covering up your sin is never the right thing to do. As Moses admonished the Trans-Jordanian tribes:
Numbers 32:23 NIV
[23] “But if you fail to do this, you will be sinning against the Lord; and you may be sure that your sin will find you out.
Sin has a habit of coming to the surface.
As Jesus taught:
Luke 8:17 NIV
[17] For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.
Modern image consultants talk of ‘owning the narrative’ – that is, to break a story before someone else does to make sure that it does not break you.
Confessing sin with honesty and integrity is a little like that in some ways, but completely not in others. You should never confess your sin before God to ‘own the narrative’. What’s the point? He knows anyway!
Confessing sin to God is about being honest with yourself about who you are and what you have done. And it ought to be an affront to your dignity. It ought to damage your self-respect. It ought to hurt. Nothing ought to puncture your ego quite like it.
Because realising who you really are and what you have really done is difficult. That is why Jesus said this:
John 3:19-21 NIV
[19] This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. [20] Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. [21] But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
Those who cannot come into the light, admit their sin, confess it, repent of it and receive forgiveness are cowards who are unable to face the brutal truth.
But to grow in Christ, to become like Him, simply to get better, we must confess what we have done wrong, no matter how much it hurts.
Apart from who God is and who we are, we also see something equally as deep, in that when we confess our sins we receive What We Need.
What We Need
1 John 1:5-10 NIV
[5] This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. [6] If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. [7] 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. [8] If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. [9] If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. [10] If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.
Shopping during the Covid pandemic will always be indelibly carved in my brain. The arrows on the floor, the masks, the avoiding of other people, the fevered desperation on the faces of people if stocks were running low, the heading from store to store to get what you need.
Grocery shopping is rarely top of most people’s ‘must do’ experiences. It’s a chore. But when we needed to avoid a dangerous pandemic while bringing food home for our families, it seemed so much worse.
It was like an extreme sport with trolleys and receipts.
Needing to confess your sin and repent feels as hard, if not more. It is an affront to our dignity, a sharp pin prick to our pride.
But it has to be done. It is absolutely necessary.
However, we don’t put ourselves through the confession and repentance mill for nothing. The gains on the other side are quite substantial, and make it thoroughly worth our while, because unconfessed sin has a dreadful effect on our ability to receive basic necessities.
The first of these is Fellowship:
1 John 1:6-7 NIV
[6] If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. [7] 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.
Every Sunday, many thousands of British churchgoers enter their church buildings and shake the hand of a greeter or door steward. The greeter asks how they are. The churchgoer says, ‘Fine’. They ask the greeter how they are. The greeter says, ‘Fine’. And the conversation ends.
But it’s not always true.
We could enter through that doorway with one leg hanging off, both arms in a sling and an arrow through our head and we would still be ‘Fine’.
The reality is that we are not always honest. There is a reason for it. The reason isn’t good. It’s actually quite chilling, but it’s still a reason.
And the reason is this:
We don’t want the other person to know that we are hurting inside because we are afraid of what they would think of us, how they would react and who they would tell. And so we erect huge walls around ourselves and lock ourselves in dark dungeons of loneliness and despair, but if someone asks how we are, we are ‘Fine’.
Brothers and sisters, this is not fellowship. A fax of a photocopy of a bad photograph of the Mona Lisa would look more like what it’s supposed to be than this looks like fellowship. It doesn’t even qualify as a pale imitation.
It’s a sham.
That is fake fellowship. And it’s far from convincing.
John teaches two very striking teachings here about the effect that unconfessed sin has on fellowship.
The first of these is fellowship with God. Sad to say it, but that should be pretty obvious:
Isaiah 1:15-18 NIV
[15] When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood! [16] Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. [17] Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow. [18] “Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.
Isaiah 59:1-2 NIV
[1] Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. [2] But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.
If you ever have the sensation that your prayers are not getting anywhere, like they’re just bouncing off the ceiling and no-one is listening, could it be that your unconfessed sin has put up the barrier?
But unconfessed sin doesn’t just affect our fellowship with God. It also affects our fellowship with other people.
Consider again our scenario of the polite but perfunctory greetings that leave us with shallow, superficial relationships – if we can even call them that. One of the reasons for this is that we are painfully aware of our sins and shortcomings and we are terribly ashamed of them.
So we hide. We put up our guard. We do not let people in.
We protect ourselves from discovery because we know we are in the wrong.
We feel like imposters, because we are imposters!
What an awful place to be!
Now, there is a good side to this: at least we feel shame. At least we feel disgrace. We are not in this position:
Jeremiah 8:12 NIV
[12] Are they ashamed of their detestable conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when they are punished, says the Lord.
Our shame is at least a sign that we know we are in the wrong. Becoming shame-less is not the solution. It might numb the pain, but our relationships with God and others are still damaged.
No, the only solution is to confess to God the sins that cause us shame, to renounce them, to repent of them and to not do them again.
That is the solution.
But as well as fellowship, there is a second essential of human life: that of forgiveness.
The Christian teaching that confession of sins leads to forgiveness comes from Old Testament law:
Leviticus 26:40-42 NIV
[40] “ ‘But if they will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors—their unfaithfulness and their hostility toward me, [41] which made me hostile toward them so that I sent them into the land of their enemies—then when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin, [42] I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.
There is also a clear link to baptism in the New Testament:
Matthew 3:4-6 NIV
[4] John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. [5] People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. [6] Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
Acts 2:38 NIV
[38] Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus stands ready to forgive. His sacrifice in the cross is the means through which we are forgiven (Ephesians 1:7-10). Confessing our sins and repenting of them is the conduit of this forgiveness.
However, if we are not willing to confess our sins, if we are not willing to seek this forgiveness, then the issue is not just that we can’t receive forgiveness from God.
We also can’t forgive ourselves.
We blame ourselves for our predicament. And we blame ourselves for blaming ourselves. And down and down we go in this unforgiveness vortex, unable to forgive ourselves, unable to forgive others, sinking down and down in a pit of despair.
All because we cannot confess who we are and what we have done.
But if we can, there is no vortex, and the burden of blame is lifted from our shoulders.
So we see two benefits: fellowship and forgiveness. The third is equally as wonderful: cleansing.
1 John 1:7, 9 NIV
[7] 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.
[9] If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
In other words, we come to God as filthy with our sin as a small child that has spent hours playing in the mud. If we cannot admit that we are filthy, we will remain filthy.
But if we admit that we are filthy and cannot clean ourselves, our Heavenly Father will lift us in His arms, carry us through to the bathroom, set us in the bathtub, run the water and gently remove all the filth from us.
There is a strong correlation in the Bible between our confession of sin and our cleansing from it. As Matthew states:
Matthew 3:6 NIV
[6] Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
So people came to John, and the order of things was that they confessed their sins, repented of them and were baptised. Baptism is a ritual cleansing ritual, which also symbolised their forgiveness. Once they emerged from the water it symbolised this:
2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV
[17] Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
It was a powerful symbol of the new birth Jesus described in John 3:3-8, which was by water and the Spirit.
In the same way as a baby is washed as soon as they are born, baptism symbolises cleansing from sin and entering into a new life.
What is being offered here is a chance to put off the old ways and put on the new ones, to use a metaphor used in Ephesians (Ephesians 4:20-24).
Or, to use an image from the IT world, it’s as if our life has frozen and the only way to fix it is a complete hard reset.
There comes a time in life when we all need to start again.
Jesus offers it.
But we must be willing to confess our sins.
Conclusion
Psalms 32:3-5 NIV
[3] When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. [4] For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. [5] Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” And you forgave the guilt of my sin.
A number of years ago, I received my first diagnosis of a slipped disk in my lower back. I was sent for an MRI scan. The journey to the hospital was very painful. I was hobbling around like an old man in agony. The radiologist lay me down on my back, slipped a cushion underneath me that was shaped like a salami and pushed a button so I would be conveyed into a weird science fiction-like metal tube which made bleeping and clunking noises like something from Star Wars.
It was quite a discombobulating experience. Very, very surreal.
I returned to my specialist doctor a week later who showed me the scans.
There was no doubt about it. I’m not a medical expert and even I could see it.
I had a slipped disk.
But the weird thing is, something that happened during that bizarre experience had given me hope. When I had got up from the scanner, the pain in my back and leg had almost gone. The cushion had applied pressure where it needed to be applied and had reduced the symptoms of my skipped disk.
It made me realise that perhaps an operation wasn’t necessary: maybe some therapy could fix this.
Which it did. Eventually.
Coming before Jesus can sometimes feel like we are getting a scan on a serious, debilitating and perhaps even chronic health condition. We know the results will be bad. Silently, we dread them. We fear even the process. We have a feeling it will be very painful.
It’s precisely this that stops people coming to Jesus to have their sins forgiven:
John 3:19-21 NIV
[19] This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. [20] Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. [21] But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
Everyone wants to be in the right. No-one wants to be in the wrong. If we point the finger at someone because they have crossed the line and done wrong, they might wag their finger at us and yell, ‘Who are you to accuse me?’
But they can’t do that with God.
Because He has every right.
And so they lurk in the shadows in the hope that no-one will uncover who they are and what they have done. That way they can continue to be imposters and fakes and hypocrites and no-one will notice.
But that is not true.
Psalms 139:11-12 NIV
[11] If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” [12] even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
God sees. God knows.
And one day, God will judge.
So really, lurking in the darkness is pointless.
It’s also very, very stressful.
Pretending to be someone you are not and keeping up appearances so no-one can realise who you really are provide nothing but sheer exhaustion, due to the energy needed to project a false opinion of yourself to other people and maintain the illusion.
That is not what Christians do.
The Word of God is the truth (John 17:17). Jesus is the truth (John 14:6). The devil is the father of lies (John 8:44).
So if we live a lie and do not live by the truth, whose bidding are we doing?
Not God’s.
John here gives us three resounding reasons to come into the light, confess our sins, be cleansed of them and receive forgiveness. Those reasons are: who God is, who we are and what we need.
Maybe you are still very nervous about confessing your sins, your weaknesses and your struggles to another human being. I get that. I really do. I have been in positions where I was very reticent to do so.
But John has the solution. We can confess our sins to each other (James 5:16) and form accountability groups that help us stay on the straight and narrow. Some people will benefit greatly from that – especially those with a sense of power or influence.
But first above all, we must confess our sins to God and ask Him to forgive us and cleanse us.
Because let’s face it: it’s useless to hide anything from Him.
He already knows.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I am done hiding. I am done pretending. I am a sinner. I confess my sins of... to You. I ask You to cleanse me of them and to forgive me. Help me to start anew with You and to live differently. I repent of all my sin. Amen.
Questions
Why should we confess our sins? What benefits are there for us?
Is it easy to confess our sins? What makes it easy/hard?
Will you confess your sins right now?
Comments