Confession of Our Sins

 I believe when most of us hear the word "confession," we think of a court of law and someone admitting that he or she has committed a crime. We tend to see it as a mere admission of guilt and nothing more. That is not the way confession is to be done in the Biblical sense. When we confess our sins to God, we must be far more specific about what we have done and how what we have done is seen by God, or He will not accept our confession.

We see this in Ezra's life when he found out that the leaders and the people of Israel had been intermarrying with the pagan peoples in the land, and they had begun to practice the idolatry of their pagan spouses. (Ezra 10:1) "While Ezra prayed and made this confession, weeping and lying face down on the ground in front of the Temple of God, a very large crowd of people from Israel - men, women, and children - gathered and wept bitterly with him." I pray that we will learn to confess our sins effectively from this example.

Confession of sins must come from the heart, not just the mind. When we realize that we have sinned against Almighty God, it should cause us anguish of heart and soul. If it doesn't, we are not seeing the seriousness of sin. Even for a born-again Christian, our sins separate us from God until we confess them. (I John 1:9) It is not that we are not saved and our confession restores our salvation. No, sin separates us from having a close relationship with our Lord and Savior. That reality should grieve us.

We see how Ezra and the people were weeping and falling face down on the ground. That was not acting! They were serious. They realized how much they had failed God and how their sins we causing God to have to punish them. They cried from the guilt and shame in their soul, not to try to manipulate God. God knows our hearts already. He needs to see confession from a sincere heart and genuine repentance from the sins we are confessing. I pray we will practice this kind of serious, sincere confession every day, so we can walk closely with Christ every day.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read Nehemiah 2-4.