As we seek to develop a growing prayer life, one of the things we must learn to incorporate into our prayers is confession. The Bible says, “But iIf we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness” (1 John 1:9, NLT). We have said repeatedly before that you and I are not perfect. We all know what sin is, and we all have sinned. If we are not careful, we allow the sin in our life to become an anchor that drags us down and stunts our growth in Christ. We need to confess our sin to God and allow Him to deal with it.
What exactly does it mean to confess our sin? The word confess basically means to say the same thing. In other words, it means that we agree with God that what we did was wrong. We do not try to excuse it or justify it. We simply acknowledge to Him that we were wrong. Remember the show Happy Days? Do you recall how the Fonz could never admit that he was wrong? He would struggle to even say the word. You and I can be that way with God. We wrestle to even acknowledge that we were wrong. To confess is simply to agree with God that we were wrong in our behavior, our attitude, or whatever.
What happens then? Here’s where it really gets tough for some of us. He forgives us. God forgives, but we won’t accept it. We drown in the guilt of yesterday’s sin. We allow past mistakes to cripple us in the present. I have often said that sometimes it’s easier for God to forgive us than it is for us to forgive ourselves. The verse we quoted above says it simply, “he is faithful and just.“ The burden for forgiveness rests on God and His character. When we confess, God forgives.
Many will say here, “but you don’t know what I’ve done.” The specifics of our sin are not the point here. I am not making light of sin or of the need to repent, but look at the verse again. He will forgive us of some of the things we have done? No, it says, “all wickedness.” All is all. Everything. The whole package. Understand that when Jesus died on the cross, He died for everything you have done and everything you will ever do. Nothing is beyond His willingness to forgive. We have to be willing to let Him restore the relationship we have with Him. We have to be willing to confess and to accept His forgiveness. There is a tremendous liberating power that comes when we understand confession and forgiveness. Let’s work to make it a regular part of our conversation with God.
Posted by Darrell Deer 
Husband, Father, Pastor, and Christ-follower. Thankful for the life, family, and ministry that God has given to me.
