Confession of Sins

You will never succeed in life if you try to hide your sins. "Confess them and give them up; then God will show mercy to you" (Proverbs 28:13). The rules for receiving the mercy of God are simple, fair, and reasonable. The Lord does not ask us to do something hard and painful so that our sins may be forgiven. We do not need to make long, tiring journeys. We cannot pay for our sins by suffering. Anyone who confesses his sins and turns away from them will receive mercy.

The apostle James says, "Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed" (James 5:16, KJV). We confess our sins to God, for only He can forgive them. We confess our faults to one another. if we have offended a friend or neighbor, we must admit the wrong, and it is his duty to forgive freely. Then we are to ask God to forgive us, because the neighbor belongs to God. When we hurt him, we sin against his Creator and Redeemer.

We take the case to Jesus Christ, our great High Priest. "Our High Priest is not one who cannot feel sympathy for our weaknesses . . . . We have a high Priest who was tempted in every way that we are, but did not sin" (Hebrews 4:15). He is able to wash away every spot of sin.

We must humble ourselves before God and admit that we have sinned. This is the first rule for being accepted by God. If we have not repented and humbled ourselves, confessing our sins, we have not truly asked for forgiveness. If we do not hate our sins, we do not truly want to be forgiven, and we do not find the peace of God. If we have not been forgiven for our sins, the only reason is that we are not willing to follow the rules set forth in the Bible. God has carefully told us what we are to do. We must open our hearts and freely admit we have sinned. we should not do this in a light or careless way. Nor should we be forced to do it. We must realize how bad sin is, and hate it.

If we truly confess, pouring out our hearts to God, He will hear and pity us. The psalmist, David, wrote, "The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit" (Psalm 34:18, KJV). True confession names the sin. It tells exactly what was done. A person may need to confess some sins only to God. Or he may need to go to some person and tell him that he is sorry he has hurt him. He may need to confess some sins in public. But every time a person confesses, he should name the sin of which he is guilty.

In the days of Samuel the people of Israel were not following God. They had lost faith in God and felt He was no longer able to lead them. They did not feel God's power, nor did they trust Him to care for them. They turned away from the great Ruler of the universe and asked for a king such as the other nations had.

God gave His people a king, but they had many troubles. Before they could find peace with God they made this confession: "We now realize that, besides all our other sins, we have sinned by asking for a king" (1 Samuel 12:19). They had to confess the exact sin that had caused their trouble. They had not been thankful to God for His leading, and this had cut them off from Him.

God cannot accept our confession unless we repent and give up our sins. We must make decided changes in our lives. When we are truly sorry for sin, we will give up everything that is not pleasing to God. The work that we must do is plainly set before us: "Wash yourselves clean. Stop all this evil that I see you doing. Yes, stop doing evil and learn to do right. See that justice is done - help those who are oppressed, give orphans their rights, and defend widows" (Isaiah 1:16, 17). "If he [an evil man] returns the security he took for a loan or gives back what he stole - if he stops sinning and follows the laws that give life, he will not die, but live" (Ezekiel 33:15).

Paul says that changes take place when a person repents: "See what God did with this sadness of yours: how earnest it has made you, how eager to prove your innocence! Such indignation, such alarm, such feelings, such devotion, such readiness to punish wrongdoing! You have shown yourselves to be without fault in the whole matter" (2 Corinthians 7:11).

When sin dulls the moral senses, the sinner does not see what is wrong with his character. His sins do not look very bad to him. He is almost blind to them unless the power of the Holy Spirit opens his eyes. A person who is not led by the Holy Spirit is not sincere and in earnest when he confesses. He excuses his sins. He says he would not have done wrong if certain conditions had been different.

After Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they were ashamed and afraid. At first their only though was how to excuse their sin and escape death. When the Lord asked about their sin Adam blamed God and Eve. He said, "The woman you put here with me gave me the fruit, and I ate it." The woman blamed the snake. She said, "The snake tricked me into eating it" (Genesis 3:12, 13). She was saying to God, "Why did You make the snake?" She was excusing herself and blaming God for her sin.

The desire to make excuses for one's sins comes from Satan and is shared by all people. But confessing by blaming someone else is not God's way, and He will not accept it. True repentance will lead a person to admit his guilt without trying to act innocent or making excuses. Like the tax collector of whom Jesus spoke, he will pray without even lifting his eyes to heaven, "God, have pity on me, a sinner." God will forgive those who admit they are guilty, for Jesus gave His life to save sinners who repent. He is the great High Priest in heaven.

We read in the Bible of people who truly repented. They were humble and confessed their sins. They did not try to make excuses or defend what they had done. The apostle Paul told of his sin of trying to kill the Christians. He did not try to make it appear small. He made it sound as bad as he could. He said: "I received authority from the chief priests and put many of God's people in prison; and when they were sentenced to death, I ever fought. It is hard for us to gibe ourselves to God and let Him control our minds. But we must let God rule or He cannot make us new and holy.

Satan wants us to believe that we will be slaves in God's kingdom, blindly submitting to unreasonable demands. He says that God asks us to obey Him without giving reasons for His commands. But this is not true. We serve God with our reason as well as our conscience. God says to the people He has made, "Come now, and let us reason together" (Isaiah 1:18, KJV). god does not force us to obey. He cannot accept our worship unless we give it freely and with the mind.

Being forced to obey God would prevent us from developing our minds and characters. We would be like machines, and this is not what our Creator wants. he wants us, the crowning work of Creation, to make the best possible use of our minds and bodies. he teaches us about the great blessings he wants to bring us through His grace. God invites us to give ourselves to Him so that he may guide us and carry out His plans for us. He gives us the right to choose what we shall do. We may choose to be set free from sin and share in the wonderful liberty that He gives His children.

When we give ourselves to God, we give up all that would separate us from Him. The Saviour said, "None of you can by my disciple unless you give up everything you have" (Luke 14:33). We must give up everything that takes our hearts away from God. Many people worship riches. The desire for wealth and the love of money bind them to Satan. Others desire honor more than anything else. They want people to look up to them and praise them. Still others wish for an easy, selfish life with freedom from care. But we must turn away from all these. We cannot belong half to God and half to the world. We are God's children only when we are entirely His.

Some people say that they serve God, but they try to obey His laws without His help. By their own works they try to develop a good character and receive salvation. Their hearts are not moved by the love of Christ. They try to do good works because they think God requires this in order for them to reach heaven. Such religion is worth nothing. When Christ lives in us, we will be filled with His love. The joy of His friendship will make us want to be near Him. We shall think about Him so much that we will forget our selfish desires. Love for Him will guide every action. If we feel the love of God, we will not ask how little we can do to obey Him. We will try to do all that our Redeemer wants. People who say they are Christians and do not feel deep love for Christ are using words without meaning. To follow Christ is hard work for them.

Should we feel it is too much to give all to Christ? We must ask ourselves the question, "What has Christ given for me?" The Son of God gave all - life and love and suffering - to save us. Can we, who are not worth this great love, keep back our hearts from Him? Every moment of our lives we have received the blessings of His grace. Because of this we can never really know from how much trouble we have been saved. Can we look at the One who died for our sins and turn from such love? Our Lord of glory humbled Himself. Shall we complain because we must fight against selfishness and be humble?

Many proud hearts are asking, "Why do I need to humble myself and be sorry for my sins before I am sure that God will accept me?" I point you to Christ. He was sinless. He was the Prince of heaven, and yet He took our place and Carried all our sins. "He willingly gave his life and shared the fate of evil men. he took the place of many sinners and prayed that they might be forgiven" (Isaiah 53:12).

What do we give when we give Him everything? We give Jesus a sinful heart for Him to make pure and clean. We ask Him to save us by His infinite love. And yet people think it is hard to give up all! I am ashamed to hear these words spoken; I am ashamed to write them. God does not ask us to give up anything that is good for us to keep. He is thinking of what is best for us. I wish that all who have not chosen Christ could realize this. Christ has something far better for them than they could ask for themselves. People are not being fair to themselves when they go against what God wants.

We can find no real joy in walking in the path He tells us not to take. He knows what is good for us, and He has the best plan for each person. The path of disobeying god is the path of unhappiness and death. Do not think that God likes to see His children suffer. All heavenly Father does not keep us from doing anything that will bring us true joy. He asks us to turn away from wrong habits and other things that will bring us suffering. He know they will keep us from happiness and heaven.

The world's Redeemer accepts people as they are, with all their weaknesses and many faults. But He will wash away their sins and redeem them through His blood. he will satisfy the desires of all who are willing to bear His load and share His work. He wants to give peace and rest to all who come to Him. He asks them to do only those things that will lead to great happiness. Those who do not obey cannot know this pleasure. True joy is to have Christ, the hope of glory, in the life.

Many people are asking, "How can I give myself to God?" they want to give themselves to Him, but their moral strength is weak. They doubt God and are controlled by sinful habits. Their promises are easily broken, like ropes of sand. they cannot control their thoughts or their desires. Because they cannot keep their promises, they lose confidence in themselves and wonder if they are sincere. They feel that god cannot accept them. but they must not lose hope.

We all need to understand the value of willpower. the power of choice is the ruling power in life. Everything depends on the right use of this power. God has given the power of choice to each person, and it is theirs to use. We cannot change our hearts. We cannot by ourselves give our love to God. But we can choose to serve Him. We can give Him the powers of our mind. Then He will help us choose the right way. Our whole being will be guided by the Spirit of Christ. We will love God, and our thoughts will be like His.

It is right that we should desire to be good and to be holy. But we must not stop there. These desires will not help us. Many people will be lost while hoping and desiring to be Christians. They do not come to the place where they yield the powers of the mind to god. they do not choose to be Christians. An entire change may be made in our lives through the right use of the power of choice. When we put ourselves on God's side, He gives us His great power to hold us. By giving ourselves to God each day we will be able to live a new life, the life of faith.

Inspired by E.W.