I wonder what goes through your mind when you think of the word confession?
For many, when they hear ‘confessing your sin’, they think it’s reserved for monks in a monastery, or of paying penance to God by entering a church confessional.
However, the Bible teaches us it is an important practice for the life of every Christian. The answers to the questions below about confession in the Bible, may surprise you:
What does the Bible say about confession?
What will happen if we don’t confess our sins?
Psalm 32 offers us several powerful reasons to confess our sins and shows us the consequences of unconfessed sin. King David felt weak and was miserable when he did not confess. Verses 3-4 says; “For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.”
Before confessing his sin, David was exhausted. Why? Because the life was being drained out of him by sin. If you do not weaken sin, it saps your spiritual strength. It weakens you!
So why should we confess our sins?
In addition to avoiding the negative effects of unconfessed sin, biblical confession is a way to experience more of God’s grace. In some ways, biblical confession should be a joy due to the rich benefits God gives us through it.
1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
This doesn’t mean that God will forgive a sin only if it has been specifically confessed. When a Christian repents all of their sins, past, present, they are immediately forgiven! So why do we need to confess our sin, if God already knows them?
We confess our sins to God to practice humility and to confess or ‘fess up’ as they say today, to the wrong things we have done. It takes a humble person to admit their mistakes! So, humility is a vital part of confession. There is a saying which says; ‘Humility is not thinking less of one’s self, its thinking of one’s self less.’ Humility takes the focus off of us, and places it on others.
So, as we come before God, is there anything in our lives that we need to confess to Him so that the Holy Spirit can have free and unhindered access to our lives, enabling His grace to freely and completely forgiven us? Enabling us to live; ‘life to the full.’ [John 10:10b]
Every blessing,
Pastor Steve