Thursday, February 27, 2014

Confession of Sin

Proverb: 28:13  He who conceals his sins does not prosper.  but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.

Do you ever pray for everyone in your family and then forget to praise God, thank Him,  or ask for forgiveness of your sins?  You pray everyday for all the members of your family and for their success, peace, good health, love, and walk with Christ.  Everything focuses intensely on them. It is great to concentrate on intercession for family and friends, but before asking for things, we need to praise his name and ask Him for forgiveness.  How can we expect God to hear us when we don't show recognition of who He is? He wants us to humble ourselves and reach out to Him for a relationship.  Our prayer conversation should be about our thanks for his wonderful promises and love.  We should show appreciation for his character and saving grace.  We should give thanks for his greatest gift of his only Son.  Then we should ask his forgiveness for the things we have done intentionally and for things we may have unwittingly done.

I am saying these things because I realized a while back that I was begging for help for family and not considering my sins.  I may not have killed people, but I have done many sinful things.  I think about my pride and how I want people to approve of me and admire my achievements.  I want to be happy with the triumphs that God has given me, but at times I want to further improve my life with my own strength. I came to see that I was very prideful and needed to constantly remind myself that God should get all the credit for my life.  I am very competitive and always want to come out a winner in any situation; however, God has made clear to me that to fail gives me the power to learn and to improve. Pride is just one of my many sins.  I find that I can be judgmental about situations and people.   Often I think that I know best, and that people should just ask my opinion so I can rectify their mistakes.  Disapproval of things can cause me to be somewhat impatient and exasperated, and these feelings should have no place in my life.  Luckily I constantly talk to God so my thick- headed self finally gets the picture that I am a true sinner.

Now when I pray, I begin with thanks for all my blessings and then I praise Him for his grace.  Then I talk about my sins and how I will try to be a better person and more Christlike. I want to be an encourager not a discourager.  Even if I have not said anything to discourage someone, I'm sure that I need to find chances to uplift  others.  I need to reach out to others in friendship and love.  God wants much more of me than I am willing to give.  It is hard to put others first, to promote fellowship, and to further God's kingdom.  It is easy for me to say that I will get to those things when I have more time, feel better, or have enough confidence.  I'm like Jonah with his excuses for not wanting to do what God told him to do to help the Ninevites learn the error of their ways.

I will constantly pray in an ongoing way to God and will ask for his grace and for the Holy Spirit to guide me on the path to righteousness.  I will constantly be aware of my sinful self and will continue to battle my wrongs. I will tell God that I know I am a sinner but I am a new person in Christ.  He made me white as snow, and there was nothing I could do to save myself except through Him. God is a merciful and forgiving God.  I can rest easy and know that I have been forgiven.  God is great and can take care of all our doubts and needs.

When we pray,  let us remember to confess our sins and ask for forgiveness.

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