But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 1 John 1:9
My friend recently told me a story about his two little boys. Someone gave them fun dip one evening at a time when it was too late for them to eat sugar. He and his wife told them they had to wait until the next day to eat it, much to their dismay. A little while later, he saw his boys, and their mouths were dyed from the sugar in the fun dip they had just consumed. Their stained mouths were a dead giveaway that they had disobeyed their parents. They could not hide their disobedience. Both he and his wife could immediately tell what their children had done. There was no hiding from their parents. In the same way, there is no hiding our temptations and sins from God. He knows our struggles, temptations, and our sins. Because of this, Scripture calls us to come to Him and confess our temptations and sins and invite Him to help us fight against them.
In 1 John 1, John writes, "If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth" (verse 8). Just like a little child, pretending they did not eat candy while their mouths are coated in sugar, we are only fooling ourselves when we hide sin, especially from God. Next, he writes, "But if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness" (verse 9). According to this verse, the beautiful thing is that God is faithful when we confess our temptation and sin to Him. He is faithful to help us fight against our sin and to forgive us from our sin. Because of this, we do not have to be worried that God will meet us with judgment or indignation when we confess our temptations and sins to Him. He will meet us with faithfulness and forgiveness. You do not have to be nervous to confess any one of your sins or temptations to God. He is right there, ready to meet you with forgiveness.
When is the last time you spent time telling God the temptations and sins you are struggling with? When is the last time you asked Him to help you as you battle against your temptations when they come? It's time today to go to Him with all of our struggles and invite Him to help us fight against them.
Spend time today in prayer. Tell God the temptations that you are struggling with. Invite Him into your struggles. Ask Him to help you fight against each and every temptation that comes your way. And remember, He is faithful to walk with us through our sins and to offer forgiveness for previous sins when we confess them to Him and seek His forgiveness.
We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.
This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.
