Scripture:
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
Thought for the day:
One of my favorite sayings as a kid was: “What momma doesn’t know, doesn’t hurt me!” My mom is not to be trifled with. She is probably the most patient, forgiving woman on the face of this earth, but she has “eyes in the back of her head, and ears that can hear a pin drop a mile away.” My mother loves her kids, she cares for us immensely, comforts us incredibly, and defends us to the hilt. But if she caught us treating someone poorly, do something we weren’t supposed to do, or saying things we weren’t supposed to say, we had to watch out! Trouble was coming our way and it was coming like a freight train.
My mom had little tolerance for hurtful words or harmful actions against anyone and she wasn’t afraid to discipline us.
I quickly learned that “what momma doesn’t know, doesn’t hurt me!” And I tried hard to get around the pain of disobedience.
How many of us try to talk ourselves into believing that “What God doesn’t know, doesn’t hurt us?” We like to think that hiding our sin makes life easier.
Proverbs 28:13 disagrees: “Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.”
Is it time to try a more excellent way? Are you willing to confess your sin before God? If your heart’s desire is to clean out the contamination in your life, you will need to confess what has stained your soul.
Confessing to God is fairly easy and essential, but it is incomplete. James 5:16 says, “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed”.
Now, we aren’t called to share our every transgressions with everyone we meet. God will bring people into our lives who can help with our healing. It might be a faith-filled friend or mentor, a more mature believer, or a pastor, whoever it is, the key is to realize that sin tends to become habitual very quickly and the chances are extremely good that you will need God’s help and the help of God’s people to find your way clear!
Prayer for the day:
Dear God, I am not the person you created me to be. Help me! Heal me! Place the right people in my life to hold me accountable to the faith I have proclaimed in You. Amen.