Something Completely Different—Part 2

I was watching the snow fall this past Sunday morning, and it got me to thinking about the passage of Scripture that tells us “though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool.” (Isaiah 1:18—NLT)

Yesterday we talked about praying for people who pop into your mind. Today I want to tell you about a practice that I try and do at least once a day, and most of the time at the end of the day or even throughout the day. It is the practice of repentance.

What I try and do is find a moment or two where there is nothing pressing on my time. No phones to answer, no kids to watch, no sermon to write, no letter to mail, no book to read, no TV to watch, no nothing. I just get alone and I pray this very simple prayer. It goes like this:

“Lord, please reveal to me anything in my life
that is offensive to You. Bring it to my mind that
I may confess it and repent.”

Then I wait. I allow my mind to think back through my day, afternoon, morning, whatever, and think about those things that I have done, said, thought or even considered that might have been offensive to God. If there is nothing, I say “Praise God!” and go about my day. But when there is something (and more often than not there is), I move on with my confession.

Confession of sin is simply agreeing with God that what I have done is offensive to Him. It is stating that I have sinned, and I need to be forgiven. I confess my sins to God because that is what I am commanded to do (1 John 1:9—“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us…”).

Once I have confessed and received God’s forgiveness, I then need to continue on toward repentance. Repentance is turning from those things I have done that offend God and moving toward Him. Obviously, this assumes I know His Word and His will for my life, so that I can move in the right direction. But I must fill the void of sin with holiness.

Jesus put it this way in Matthew 12:43-45:

“When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none. Then it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from.’ So it returns and finds its former home empty, swept, and in order. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before.” (Emphasis added)

Notice that this “evil spirit” left the person for a time, but when it came back, there was nothing there to replace it. I think that Jesus is telling us that when we seek forgiveness through confession of sin, we are truly cleansed. That’s the promise of God in 1 John 1:9. But the problem is that we don’t replace that sin with something holy. So repentance is replacing the sin in our lives with something else that is holy and righteous.

Now please don’t misunderstand. I am not saying that the things that we replace our sin with must necessarily be spiritual things. They could be things like hobbies, crafts, etc. that are wholesome and bring us a connection to God. If you noticed in the discourse that Jesus was giving to His disciples in Matthew 12, the life of the person was empty, leaving room for the evil spirit (or what I might call “besetting sin” or “habitual sin”) to come back.

So when you do this, ask God to show you your failures, confess them, then repent of them and fill that void with something that will honor God in your life.

If you do that every day (or even multiple times a day), you’ll find that your “sin accounts” with God will be kept very short…and joy will fill your life!

Have a great Tuesday, and we’ll see you on Sunday!

Confession

Please read the following Scriptures, and then come back and read the rest of this post. Thanks.

#1: Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” Genesis 3:1-11

#2: Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.

Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”

Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”

“I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Genesis 4:2-9

Here we see God at work in the lives of both Adam and Eve, and their son, Cain. In both of these instances God is looking for confession. In both of these instances, God receives blame, condemnation of others and indifference.

God wants us to confess our sins when we break His laws. He wants us to come to Him and confess that we have done what we have done. There is mercy and grace to be had if we only confess to our God our shortcomings.

But too often we try to hide like Adam and Eve or try to say that it’s not our responsibility like Cain. In both instances, God was looking to see if His creation would choose to come clean, but far too often His creation chooses instead to hide.

Francesca Battastelli has great song out right now called If We’re Honest, and it speaks to this very thing as it relates to confession to one another. I hope you’ll take the time to watch the video and reflect on what needs to “come clean” in your life.

Comment below and share a time when you confessed something and how that confession led to a deeper relationship with God and with the person you confessed to.

And we’ll see you on Sunday!

Good For the Soul

One of the things that I think we have lost a great deal of in our national religious consciousness is the idea of confession. This is one area that I think our Catholic friends might have it on us (not that I believe that any man has the power to forgive sins). Though there is something about sharing your sin with another human being that is not only cathartic, but healing in both the soul and the body.

David said it best in the 32nd Psalm. Take a moment and read it, then come back and let's finish this post together.

So David says that the one who is forgiven is blessed, or happy. When you've screwed up, you know you need someone to forgive you. And when you receive that forgiveness there is a weight that just lifts off of your shoulders, isn't there?

At the end of verse 2, David talks about the one in whose spirit there is no deceit. What does that mean? It means that there is happiness when one isn't so concerned about "keeping a lid" on the sin that is in their lives. When we are bold enough to say, "This is my sin, and this is what I deal with," we allow ourselves to be vulnerable and we can be hurt. It's dangerous to confess our sins. But look at the next verse. Keeping quiet about sin, or making everyone think that we have no sin is the best way to loose our grip on reality. Look at the words David uses here: "my bones wasted away", "my groaning all day long", "your hand was heavy on me", "my strength was sapped" (emphases added). These are words that describe both physical and emotional draining...emptiness.

But in verse 5, David says, "Then I acknowledged my sin." He confessed that his sin was real, that it was he'd done what he had done and didn't try to "keep the lid" on it anymore. And what happened? He was forgiven! Not only that, but he found that his life was now not only rejuvenated, but also protected! He was protected by his "Hiding Place," God Himself!

Finally, in verses 8-10, David talks to you and I. He says (and I paraphrase here), "Don't be an idiot. Don't be a donkey (or whatever other word you may want to use)! Don't be one who lacks understanding! Don't be a loser who can't understand right from wrong! Don't kick back at God and keep on telling Him 'NO!' Be one who listens to wise instruction. Be one who is surrounded by God's unfailing love! And you will have reason to rejoice!"

My brothers and sisters, confession is, indeed, good for the soul, but it is also good for the body. And when we confess and repent of our sins, God is all about forgiving us...and not only that, but keeping us, too!

Feel free to leave a comment below, and we'll see you on Sunday!!!!