The Struggle of Confessing to God
Selected Verse
Establish the need: When was the last time you confessed your sins to God?
Purpose: Today we shall see three points concerning how Jesus is the one who made it possible we can pray.
- What is Confession?
- Struggles of Confession
- Helps for Confession
What is Confession?
Proof
- “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
- The Greek verb for “confess” is a compound word of “same” and “say.”
- So confession means saying and seeing our sins the way God sees it.
- What we are to confess here is “our sins.”
- We see confession of sins during John the Baptist’s ministry before they were baptized: “And all the country of Judea was going out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.” (Mark 1:5)
- We also see it done in the early church: “Many also of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices.” (Acts 19:18)
- Here this is in the church of Ephesus.
- Believers here were confessing their involvement with occult practices.
- Here they confess and that means “disclosing their practices”
- One thing we see here is that confession occurs even after salvation and as believers!
Practice
- As a result of this teaching, do you know know something more accurate about what is confession?
- Knowing what is confession, ask yourself is this something you think about praying often?
Struggles of Confession
Proof
- Pride:
- Scripture tells us we shouldn’t speak with pride: “Do not lift up your horn on high, Do not speak with insolent pride.’”” (Psalm 75:5)
- Of course if we are too busy with being prideful with our lips we don’t have time to confess our sins.
- We love our sins: “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.” (John 3:19)
- We don’t want to give up our sins
- This is an extension of the previous point.
- If we love our sins we don’t want to give it up let alone properly confess it to God.
- We don’t know God’s law enough
- Ignorance of God’s requirement and prohibition would mean we don’t know when we sin.
- Thus we don’t confess
- We have blind spots: “Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults.” (Psalm 19:12)
- David here is speaking.
- Notice here David acknowledge that sometimes we cannot discern our own error.
- We think God owes us: ““I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You” (Job 42:5)
- This is after God confronted Job with the assumption that God owes Him.
- But before that remember Job thinks God owes him things besides suffering.
Practice: Which one of these roadblocks do you struggle with the most?
Helps for Confession
- Read God’s Word regularly: “Moreover, by them Your servant is warned; In keeping them there is great reward.” (Psalm 19:11)
- Recall earlier sometimes we have blind spot in our life with sin mentioned in Psalm 19:12.
- Here the verse before it we see the importance of God’s Word to warn us of it.
- Also we also see God’s Word also give us positive motivation because obedience to God’s Word according to David brings about a “great reward”
- Meditate on the blessed result of confession: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
- Result 1 is sins forgiven: “to forgive us our sins”
- Result 2 is cleanse from unrighteousness: “and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnes”
- Listen to your critic to find what you might need to confess
- Your worst of critic might not be totally right, but they might notice a grain of truth of a fault you have.
- Listening to your critic is helpful to consider what are possible sins you need to confess to God and others.
- Confess to others: “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” (James 5:16)
- The confession here is to one another.
- Sometimes it is hard to confess one’s sin and there is a need for reassurance that God forgives; so confess to others is a mean that God can have to comfort you of God’s promises that confession to God for your sins will result in forgiveness.
- Of course confession result in our forgiveness because of Christ!
Pastor Jim, thanks for sharing this discussion about confession. My journey of faith has brought me to a place where I begin my prayers with a time of confession. My heart is prepared to meet Jesus at the Cross. Peace be with you.
Thanks be Jesus for hearing our confession and forgiving us!
Blessings.
Thank you for this!! So grateful God used Jesus to bridge the gap that we could NEVER “bridge” ourselves!
HE IS THE KING OF KONGS AND LORD OF LORDS!! 🙏🏻❤️👑
How can we not have a blessed day KNOWING this ABSOLUTE truth!
What a great Savior!
Thank you for these vital insights, Jim! GOD bless you and your family!
I appreciate you reading this post and gleaming from it! This is part of my four part series on prayer using the acronym ACTS: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication. I’m sure you have heard of this before right?
Thank you for edifying, Jim with the ACTS series! I’ve picked behavior changing points from that series. We are all sinners and we commit sin everyday and no one can be as clean and shimmering as the pharisee. We are like (and should be like) the tax collector and reflect on his humble response. A blessed day ahead.
Reblogged this on The Outspoken TULIP and commented:
Pastor SlimJim has written a helpful outline on the importance of confessing our sins. If you struggle with this discipline, his article will greatly encourage you.
Thanks for this good outline on confession of sin with practical suggestions! Although we are saved by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, and all of our sins, past, present, and future have been forgiven in Christ, we need to confess our daily sins to the Lord as part of our sweet fellowship with Him.
Amen we are justified but in a relational sense we need to have a habit of confession to Him. Drove my mom to the doctors and now meeting with a pastor at the Seminary right now how is your day?
RE: day
Did some job search and a little bush trimming. Started raining which is going to last until tomorrow morning, so I’m hunkering down for the day, may write a book review I’ve been putting off.
Good lesson. I need to be more humble.
A struggle for me can be in arrogance where I think I know God’s Word too much and wait to repent. Fear of God’s response/discipline can be a stumbling block for me. Praise God His conviction is stronger than my pride!
Amen I’m grateful His conviction is greater than our pride! Quick unrelated question: I was over at my old seminary and noticed no one really wore masks compared to where I live. Curious if your county require masks and do you see people wear masks in your neck of the wood?
Yes, we wear masks. Unless you have a declared medical reason, you must wear a mask. You can be refused service for not wearing one. My Seminary is closed, you can’t get on campus even if you wanted. Masks are just the new normal where I live. My dad got Nathan and I, my mom and my brother and sister-in-law Lumins (cpap machine) so we can sanitize our masks. I was at the post office two weeks ago and a little girl was indignant that the postal woman didn’t have on a mask. I am glad that wasn’t my daughter is all I can say. I am surprised that your Seminary isn’t wearing masks, I’m also amazed it’s still open! I am thankful for you, Nancy and your girls. Please j know that!
Great lesson always and for these times when we need to be before in repentance. Thanks!
Great post. I hope you are doing well
I’m doing well, how about you? Still on vacation?
Nope. First night back. Man do I miss the lake lol. I also started a new workout routine with one of my friends and my wife. Especially since we gained a little more weight around the midsection lol
How is your church doing in California right?
Thank you pastor Jim for this very helpful outline.
You’re welcome Crissy. Thanks for sharing so much of our stuff on Twitter by the way. God bless you!
You have a great blog, I also share your blog on my FB christian groups.
Thank you. Great reminder. I find great relief when I confess and pour out my heart before God.
What an encouraging thought you made that confession results in relief and peace
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Good exhortation to confess