Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.'" Luke 11:4
Jesus knew that not one of us is perfect. He was aware of the fact that all of His disciples would miss the mark at times in following God. For this reason, when Jesus taught us how to pray, He included confession as part of the prayer.
There should always be a moment in our daily prayers where we come to God and confess our sins. When we confess our sins, we are acknowledging and owning the fact that we messed up. Confession also admits that our actions and behaviors didn't line up with what the Bible says, and we are grieved that we got it wrong. When we confess our sins before God, "He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness (1 John 1:9)." Confession is our way of making sure that our relationship with God isn't fractured or broken.
But when a person refuses to confess, it can reveal a couple of different things about their character. It may show that they don't think they have done anything wrong. It could be that they are comparing their actions to those around them, or to a neighbor who doesn't go to church. They may even see their own personal sins as a minor mistake or an accident, rather than an offense against a Holy God. One of the other elements that hold a person back from confession is pride. They may be too proud to admit that they have done anything wrong. They may actually be self-righteous, thinking God loves them more than everyone else, so their sin doesn't matter. They get a special pass. The Pharisees were too blind to see their own sin and instead, only saw faults in others. The problem is that when we refuse to confess, we begin to rot from the inside out. We become bitter, angry, and arrogant, isolating ourselves from God and others. Confession is a gift so we can repair what was broken.
Jesus seems to encourage confession because it levels the playing field. We get right with God and we are reminded that we are imperfect. After confession, Jesus encouraged the disciples to ask for help to resist temptation. Those same things that you confessed, you need to ask God for help to overcome in the future. Jesus is calling us into the battle against evil and challenging us to pray for protection. Take time today to get right before God and ask Him to keep you from evil.
Use this time to get honest before God and to ask for forgiveness. Write out a prayer to God detailing the things that you have done, listing your sins one by one. After you have made a list, think through how God views each of these offenses. Then, release each on back to God. Ask Him for forgiveness and put them in His hands. When He gives you forgiveness, extend that same spirit to those who have hurt you. When you are done working through the list, pray that God will keep and protect you from evil.
Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?”
“No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!
“Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt.
“But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’ Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt.
“But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment.
“His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded. But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full.
“When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened. Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt.
“That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.”
