March 4
“He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, But he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.” Proverbs 28:13
We will now continue exploring the twenty four principles on overcoming temptation as presented in the booklet Overcoming Temptation, the second of which is “Repent and confess your sins to God.” On the surface, the principle seems basic and simple, but in my experience it is both simple and very difficult.
Repenting and confessing our sins to God is very simple in that it only requires the simple act of acknowledging our sins to God and turning away from them. This is easy when we have just been caught in the act so to speak or we have obviously sinned against God and others to the point where only a fool would keep trying to assert their innocence and try to justify their sins. God makes it very easy to confess our sins, that is, state what we did that is against His law and offensive to Him, express that we are sorry that we have done it, and promise to try to do better in the future. Isn’t this the normal pattern of confessing our sins and repenting?
God makes it very simple for us to turn back to Him and confess our sins, and this much we should do without hesitation. Let’s reflect a moment about the vast, incredible, amazing, and incomprehensible goodness of God, that He even allows us the privilege of confessing our sins against Him and receiving His forgiveness! We must never take this lightly!! Oh Christian, no matter where you are in your spiritual journey, from a seasoned saint to one new to the faith or one who is still struggling to overcome their sins after many failures, give thanks for this! Think long and hard about the astounding grace found in the verse
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
Rejoice in this! Dwell on this! Give continual thanks for this! Avail yourself of this privilege often!! Think for a while about what it would be like to live in world where this free forgiveness and cleansing was not free and simple or not certain or not available at all. How oppressive! Yet this is the world of the unbeliever and the world of those who do not know Christ as Lord and Savior. If this doesn’t motivate us to gratitude and repentance, I’m not sure what will.
Christian, let us not add to our sins by refusing or delaying to avail ourselves of this amazing grace. Let us all learn to confess our sins quickly and often. Let us glorify God by believing His promises and acknowledging that He is a gracious and forgiving God by a continual habit of confessing and repenting of our sins.
Confessing our sins and repenting of them is easy, and praise God that He made it so. But as easy as this is, many of us get tripped up on this very simple task. Tomorrow we will examine some of the subtle deceptions that trip us up and cause us to not obey this verse and not repent and confess our sins to God.