Confessing Our Sins

I am afraid most people, even most Christians, do not understand how God wants us to confess our sins. Since we are all sinners, we all need to confess our sins all of the time. Yes, I know Jesus died for all of our sins, and when we repent of our sins and trust Jesus as our Savior and Lord, all our sins are forgiven, past, present, and future. Everyone needs to do that first. Then, we need to know what to do when we sin after we are saved.

King Saul had a lot of hang-ups and weaknesses, but he gave us a good model for real confession of a sin. He did this after David had spared his life a second time, even though Saul was hunting him down to kill him. (I Samuel 26:21) Saul said, "I Have sinned. Return, my son David. For I will harm you no more, because my life was precious in your eyes this day. Indeed, I have played the fool and erred exceedingly." Let's see what we can learn.

When we sin as believers, our sins separate us from God. They harm our relationship with Him, even though, we are still saved. They make our heart hard, so we can't hear from God very well and be close to Him. Therefore, God gave us a promise that if we will confess our sins, He will be faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (I John 1:9) The word confess there means to say the same thing God would say about our sin.

First, we have to admit our sin like Saul did. We have to tell God that we know how terrible our sin was, and we need to be specific as to why that sin was so bad. We can't just say, "Forgive my sin." Then, we have to repent of our sin, like Saul did, when he vowed not to harm David any more. We have to act on our confession, not just say we are sorry. Then, God hears our confession, we are cleansed, and we are restored to close fellowship with God.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read I Samuel 27-29