Are You A Good Confessor?

You may have noticed that over the past few devotions, I have been sharing about the sample of prayer, given to us by Jesus Himself. We've discovered important points about prayer by studying through the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6.

Continuing on, we see that the Lord's prayer asks to "give us this day our daily bread" which I believe is very relevant in today's society. We are "gathering" and "hoarding" enough foods to feed literally "armies" of men (which is a good thing), however we are not focusing on what Jesus was trying to portray to us. When He said "give us this day our daily bread" I believe He was trying to help us understand that we only need what we can deal with on a daily basis. You know, in Jesus' day, they didn't have big refrigerators and freezers to store up their goods to use at a later date and I believe that is what Jesus was trying to say to us. Today has enough of it's own things to deal with so just ask God for what it is that you need today and allow tomorrow to take care of itself.

And then how many times have we been preached to and taught how important "confession" is everyday? He continues His thought with "And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors." I am constantly brought back to Psalms 51 as David agonizes over his sin with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11), and how he pleads and confesses to God his "shortcomings" in his sin. And what about Psalms 139: 23 & 24 which say, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me. And lead me in the everlasting way." When we recognize the sin in our lives, it is important that we lay it before the Lord for His forgiveness, even though He knows our sins, and every sinful thought, every sinful task, every word leading to sin that we commit. We overuse this passage of scripture on the "lost" when it speaks directly to Christian brothers and sisters in sin which is First John 1:9 saying, "If we confess our sin, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Sin grieves and hinders, confession restores, and our relationship with the Father is found to revitalize our level of communication with God. Matthew 10:32 is also very important in our confession as it leads to our witness which says, "Everyone therefore who shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven." Doesn't that sound like what we want anyway?

Quoting Pastor Chuck Smith once again, he said, "Even though Jesus Christ has already died for every sin we will ever commit - past, present and future, God still wants us to come to Him when we realize we have sin in our lives." Thereby substantiating the need and importance of 1st John 1:9!

So what do you think? Is it true that "confession is good for the soul?" I think we need to become habitual about waking up to confess before our God and then retire each night in the same attitude of confession. 'Just sayin'!

Dave