You want me to confess what?

What up fellas. I talked a lil last time on getting in that quiet when entering prayer. Next important and kind of difficult part of prayer is confession. I do not believe that confession is just bringing up your past sins, feeling remorse, or getting emotional. The heart of confession is agreeing with God about what He says about you....to you. Actually, let me back track here. An important time before confession is adoration. Adoration leads to spending time in prayer dealing with ourselves. God has a way of revealing our heart to us if we start this process. The Bible says God dwells in the praises of His people. When you go into a quiet place and get rid of whatever distracts you, when you start to worship Him, He begins to dwell around you, and you now have holiness in your presence. Then, whether you are weary or anxious for it, He starts to point out your(our) unholiness.

He will shine light on places you might think for a second He didn't know about about, even though you know He knows. In a way, it is kind of like peek-a-boo with a toddler. If they cannot see you then they think you cannot see them. Maybe a bad example but it is almost like that with our Savior sometimes. I think that if I don't look at and acknowledge the sin then God doesn't really acknowledge it either.....yea, not at all. So confession is when the Holy Spirit shows you something in your life that is not right, then you simply agree. Sounds simple, but you'd be surprised of how often people enter prayer upon prayer with "sin monkeys" on their back. And God wants to convict of us of any unholiness taking place before any further dealings (for lack of better word) goes down. 1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

See, many times I've ask for forgiveness with the intent in the verrrry back of my mind of possssibly doing it again. But I've learned you can never be cleansed that way. In reality, that shows God that we actually do not agree with His conviction of whatever it is in our lives that is not right. And, in that sense, we are making God out to be a liar, and verse 10 says, "If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives." But, the Bible says that "He is faithful and just." "Just" means right. God will respond in a righteous way and forgive us if we agree with what He says. That sin monkey can absolutely keep us from being cleansed.

I like reading stories about David, and he was one of the worst sinners in the world. He has a laundry list of sins, yet God said, "This is a man after my own heart." David was completely honest about his sin. He didn't make excuses, He admitted all his sin, and this amazing thing made his prayer life powerful (see Ps. 51:1-4). What I am afraid of is playing around with sin, because I believe it can end up destroying the very person you are, that I am.

So, fellas (and todd, listen todd) confess that sin and obey God with the quickness. There is no excuses or justifying when it comes to dealing with sin. Whatever you justify, you cannot repent of. Don't go into a long drawn out explanation about why you sinned and all the ramifications. When God says, "Hey, is that sin?". The right and the best answer is yes. We are in accord that we got some filth that needs God's cleansing and forgiveness. So, we ask Him to forgive us, and I would imagine He would say, "Absolutely, I would love to clean that up." God is faithful. Once He cleanses us, there is no one that can condemn us (Rom. 8:33-34).

trying to die to myself,

-tmart