As much as I have grown and matured in my relationship with God, there still remains one constant in my life, sin. Just when I think I have it figured out and have conquered some sin in my life, I find, all too often, the sin shows up again. Even for those areas of my life where I have seen God give me complete victory over my sinful behavior, there are a dozen other areas of my life where I continue to struggle with sin. It is part of the human condition and our fallen nature.
When I memorized this verse, it helped me understand the significance of confessing our sins before God. I am not talking about the general statement when we say “Father, forgive me for all my sins.” I am talking about being as specific as we can when we confess our sins. Here is an example from my own life.
“Father, I confess there are many times when I am arrogant and prideful. I look at others and feel like I am somehow better than them. I find it so easy to point out the speck in my brother’s eye, while completely ignoring the plank that is in my eye. I realize it is only because of your grace that I am who I am and there is nothing special about me that makes me better than others. Forgive me for my arrogance and my pride and help me to grow in humility. I ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.”
Here is another example that is even more specific.
“Father, I come before you and ask that you would forgive me for eating so poorly tonight. I know I am supposed to take better care of my body, yet I still chose to eat the whole bag of chips. Even as I was eating them, I knew I shouldn’t be eating the whole bag, but I still chose to do so anyway. I ask for your forgiveness in this sin and for help in overcoming it in the future. I ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. ”
I have found great freedom in confessing my sins before God. I have also realized the sooner I confess my sins before God, the sooner I can be reconciled in my relationship with him. I think one of Satan’s greatest lies is to get us to believe that we shouldn’t confess our sins to God because we knew full well what we were doing when we chose to sin.
Here is how I see it played out all too often.
First, Satan tempts us. He uses a similar line of reasoning.
Look what I have for you. Don’t you want it? Doesn’t it look so good? You know you want this. You deserve this. Come on, it’s not that big a deal. Just come enjoy what I have for you.
Next, once we have bought his lies, he completely changes his stance and begins to accuse us.
Aww, I can’t believe you did that. You knew this was a sin. How could you go and sin like that? You know God is not happy with you right now. You’re unbelievable!
Later, we know we should spend time with God, but we still feel guilty for our earlier choice to sin. Satan continues to feed us more lies.
How can you spend time with God when you made such a blatant decision to sin? You knew exactly what you were doing when you chose to sin. God doesn’t want to hear from you right now. He knows you chose to sin. Just forget about spending time with him right now and do something else to help take your mind off this. You’ll eventually forget about it and then you can spend time with God if you want to.
When we buy into these lies, we are doing exactly what Satan wants us to do. We are separating ourselves from God and the longer Satan is able to keep us separate from God, the more havoc he can wreak in our lives. But, if we hold on to the promise of 1 John 1:9, we can be confident that when we confess our sins before God, he will be faithful to forgive our sins, despite our decision to choose to sin in the first place.
When I fully grasped the truth of this verse, it made a huge difference in reconciling myself to God. I realized the sooner I confess my sin to God; the sooner I can receive the forgiveness I so desperately need. I also realized the longer I put off confessing my sin to God, the more power I was giving my enemies to keep me separated from God.
This made a huge difference in my life. Instead of going to bed with remorse and regret that day thinking I’ll try to make it right in the morning, I could reconcile myself to God right away. This allowed me to rest in his peace while I slept instead of allowing Satan to add another 7-8 hours of separation between me and my Creator.
It also made a huge difference the next morning when I woke up to spend time with God. Instead of having to face the obstacle of reconciling myself to God so I could then read His Word without feeling guilty, I could wake up with a clear conscience. This kept me from skipping out on my time with God and allowed my time with him to become richer and more meaningful.
Benjamin Franklin said “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” I would like to add a third item to this list. We can be certain that we will continue to sin. The good thing is, our Creator has promised us he will continue to forgive our sins as long as we confess them. The sooner, the better!
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
1 John 1:9 NASB
