HAVE YOU BEEN PARALYZED BY THE FAILURE TO CONFESS?

Today's promise: God is always willing to forgive us

Have you been paralyzed by the failure to confess?

When I refused to confess my sin, I was weak and miserable and groaned all day long.

Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat.

Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide them.

I said to myself, "I will confess my rebellion to the Lord." And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.

Therefore, let all the godly confess their rebellion to you while there is time.

Psalm 32:3-6 NLT

Confessing instead of hiding

We find many ways to get around admitting our sin. We rationalize our sins away. We try to drown out the guilt with all types of distractions. But over time, our sins deplete our will to pray. David was intimately familiar with all the ways one can try to hide sin. He had exhausted himself covering up his own sins. But everything changed when he finally gave up running away from his sin: "Finally, I confessed all my sins to you."

Like David, we can find our prayer life renewed when we freely confess our sins to God. Confess your sin and let God restore your prayer life to what it can and should be.

Prayer for today:

Dear Lord, I don't want to hide my sins anymore; I want to confess them to you today …

From The One Year® Book of Bible Prayers edited by Bruce Barton, Tyndale House Publishers (2000), entry for January 4

On the other hand…

Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them quite so much.

AUTHOR UNKNOWN

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House