Today is Day 36, and today we look at the practice of confession in the life of a disciple of Jesus.

(You can catch up on Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8, Day 9, Day 10, Day 11, Day 12, Day 15, Day 17, Day 18, Day 19, Day 20, Day 21, Day 22, Day 23, Day 24, Day 25, Day 26, Day 27 Day 28, Day 29, Day 30, Day 33, Day 34, Day 35 if you missed them)

Confession

Confession is a topic often debated in churches—do we need to continue confessing to God and do we need to confess to others? But, as with generosity, I find it’s only debated by those who have never tasted its fruits. The fruit of confessional living is freedom and true fellowship.

God knows you completely, the good, bad, and ugly, past, present, and future. There’s no hiding from Him, but why would you want to? Your Father is the only being in the universe who loves you fully, unconditionally, when you are at your worst. We worry that God is obsessed with our every action, but what He really cares most about is our hearts.  (Matthew 12:34-35). Sin is a heart issue. Focusing on behavior management alone doesn’t address the underlying issues. The sins that trip us up are symptoms of a root problem. Sin comes from our poor attempts to meet true needs. If we address the true need at the root, we don’t need elaborate ways to manage our behavior.

And if we do not trust God enough to share these things with Him, how can we get His supernatural help to overcome them? How can we find the root issues, the true needs we are seeking to fill in harmful ways?

If we do not have trusted, mature, followers of Jesus to open up to about our struggles, we will assume we are alone in them. Shame grows in the dark, and one of the best tricks of the enemy is to convince you that you should hide your struggles from others. We are meant to carry each other’s burdens, which we can’t do unless we have trusted people to share with. If we don’t allow others to offer correction or speak into our lives we miss a vital part of growing in Christ.

Reflection for prayer and/or journaling:

What would your life look like if you trusted God enough to be fully open and honest about your struggles? What would it look like if you had a confessional relationship with trusted, mature others to shed light on the dark places?

Action steps:

Did anything come to mind as you read this? Consider it a prompting from the Lord to talk to Him about it. Confess anything to the Lord that hinders your relationship with Him.  When we come to God with our faults, we aren’t worried about how He’ll react. He isn’t angry at you. He isn’t disappointed. He grieves the things that separate you from Him and His love. He longs to have intimate fellowship with you with nothing hindering it. We know when we are faithful to confess, He is faithful to forgive and will purify us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

Pray together:

Father, thank you for this group and for this time together with you. Search us and know our hearts, and reveal any offensive way in us, and lead us in the Way we should go. Help us to trust you more and give us the confidence we need to seek the type of openness to confession that brings freedom and true fellowship. In the name of Jesus, we pray together, amen.

♥ Samantha