Spiritual Practices: Confession

I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,”
and You forgave the iniquity of my sin.
Ps. 32:5b

I personally think that each of the spiritual practices we have been studying these past several weeks have a blessing that they bring and a challenge as well. For example, biblical meditation brings the blessing of filling our hearts and renewing our minds with God's word. The challenge is to engage in meditation regularly, and also, for some folks, to not be so focused on meditating that they neglect to serve others. 

When it comes to confession, I'll start with the challenge first. The challenge is realizing our sin or wrongdoing and then being able to be honest about it with ourselves, with God, and with others. In our humanity, we feel embarrassed over the shortcomings, difficulties, and sin in our lives. But that's exactly why Christ came! The practice of confession helps us be able to admit these things to others and not have to put up a false front. Therein lies the challenge...and there also is the blessing. When we acknowledge our sin and agree with God about it, we confess it to Him and we find His forgiveness.


His forgiveness lifts the burden off our hearts, giving peace to our souls and His life flows through us fully. Sometimes I view bitterness or unforgiveness like a garden hose that has a giant kink in it. When you try to use a kinked hose, some water will flow out. But when you fix the kink, water flows much more naturally and much more fully. So it is with confession. It allows us to go to Jesus who heals and forgives the “kinks”’ in our souls and allows His life to flow much more fully through us. The same is true when we forgive others through Christ's love and power. We will find restoration in areas that we didn't realize had been affected by unforgiveness and bitterness, and our hearts will be much lighter. 


We took some time on Sunday to prayerfully seek the Lord's face for forgiveness, to forgive others, and to confess things to Him. I encourage you to continue taking time to keep doing that this week. I have found that sometimes once we deal with the “ tip of the iceberg”, the Lord, in His kindness and faithfulness, will bring other areas to our attention for further confession. This is not a sign of failure on our part but of faithfulness on His end to keep working out the “kinks” in our souls. You’ll be grateful that you stayed with this practice as He removes barriers that had grown up unbeknownst to you which stand between you and Him.


Remember, we know, love, and serve a gracious, loving, and faithful Father (Ex. 34:6-7) who abounds in grace to forgive His children and who delights in them (Zeph. 3:17). That's us!


Pastor Andy


Questions for Reflection: 

• What is the Lord revealing to you personally that you need to confess to Him?
• Is there someone in your life who you need to forgive through the strength and power of Jesus?
• Is there someone that you need to re-forgive?
• Would you say there's someone in your life who you need to go to personally to apologize and ask them to forgive you?

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