With Confession Comes Healing
Written by: Lorie Looney Keene,
Author of Pull up a Chair: You, Me, and the Gospel of John
Check it out at www.christianbooks.com.
“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
My mother’s favorite phrase was “Go outside and play.” As a result, I spent a lot of time outdoors growing up in rural Alabama. One summer day my cousin and I found ourselves attempting to scale a forbidden wall inside his barn. Half way up the wall I slipped and gashed my foot on what I now know to be shards of glass. However, when my cousin saw my new wound and my apparent fear, he quickly said, “That’s not glass……those are diamonds!! We can’t go and tell my mom….After all 1) we are not supposed to be in the barn, and 2) if you go to the doctor, he will see the diamonds, and the family fortune would be taken away.”
That was a heavy load for a 7 year old girl to carry, but nonetheless, I carried the load and the “family treasure” in my foot all day long, through mud and dirt. At the end of the day the “diamonds” were removed from my feet, but in a much more painful way, than had I been honest in the beginning before the wound had time to get infected.
As an adult, I am reminded of how often I do the same thing with the sin in my life. Instead of running to God when I first “fall down,” I sometimes walk around and let the wound get worse, simply because I am afraid or I have believed a lie. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
When we come to God and honestly confess our sins, He not only FORGIVES them, but He goes beyond that and PURIFIES us!! What sin are you prone to trip over? Are you walking around wounds you need healed? Let His Word encourage you to run to Him and confess the sin that is causing you pain, and give Him the opportunity to purify you.
Pray with us at Christ Compels: Dear Lord, sometimes I do not run to You when I first fall down. I walk on the wound, and I let it get worse. Help me to not be afraid. Help me to not believe any lie. Help me to know that I cannot take care of it on my own.
I need some confession time with You. I know what sin I am prone to trip over. I confess to You my sin of _____________. Lord, You are faithful and righteous. You forgive our sins. You cleanse us from all unrighteousness! Hallelujah! There is nothing like walking clean! Nothing else gives me as much a release to beauty and joy as being washed as white as snow by Your forgiving power.
Lord, I have wounds that I need You to heal. They have caused me so much pain. I am in great need of healing. My heart has been wounded by ______________________.
I bring all of this to You because of what Jesus did for me. Thank You, Jesus, for dying for my sins. I pray all of this in the precious name of Your Son, Jesus! Amen.