Day 34 - Issue 24
Psalm 32:5 NLT
Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.” And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.
My tradition as a new Christian was that confession remained a private matter between me and God. I was never quite comfortable with this. One thing I did know before I ever found Christ was my capacity to deceive others. I was less aware of the fact that I was equally deceiving myself.
Confession is the appropriate response to contrition. The darkness that lingers within each of us regardless of redemption can create a confusing battle in deepening our knowledge and encounter with God. This struggle is always best confessed rather than retained. While I can make such confession alone, I have found it best to confess my sins to others within the family of faith as well as to God. This helps me own my inner shame and acknowledge my fractured humanity.
Darkness offers far greater opportunity to hide than does the light. My fractured self loves the darkness, for I can determine the character of my appearance upon the stage of life. Everyone else relates to the persona I choose to present, and the more I present that persona, the better I become at both living out of this false self as well as convincing myself this is the authentic me. After a while, I lose complete sight of my true self. Out of touch with myself, I am most certainly out of touch with God.
I acknowledge to God my brokenness. I declare in honesty what I am seeking from God. I seek to clarify the internal barriers that obstruct my path towards greater enlightenment in the ways of God and a deepening trust in God’s capacity to care for me. Confessing my sins as well as my aspirations towards godliness is essential in my journey of deepening my faith walk.
QUESTION: How are you on confession? Shame and secrecy are tools that only oppress and finally crush us. Confession offers a road leading to freedom. Consider confession this Lent.
PRAYER: Lord, thank you for the grace of confession and the reminder that Christ has freed me from the grip of sin.
