Bring it into the Light – Confession – Part 1 — Answering The Call

Bring it into the Light

Confession – Part 1

By Grant Gaines

Today we will begin a three week journey in which we will study the spiritual discipline of confession. Confession is rarely talked about and is therefore often misunderstood. My prayer during the next three weeks is to help answer the following questions: why do we confess, what is confession, and how do we do it.

On December 12, 1799, the founding father of our nation, George Washington, set out on horseback to check on a few things around his farm before the rapidly approaching winter storm hit. Washington surveyed his land as the rain turned into sleet and then eventually turned into snow. After finishing his rounds, the former-president returned home just in time for dinner which left him no time to change out of his wet, cold clothes.

The following morning, Washington awoke with a sore throat and a hoarse voice. But as you would expect from the man who led the underdog American army against what was at the time the most powerful army in the world, Washington didn’t hesitate to mount his horse and face the snowy winter elements with the goal of marking the trees he planned to chop down after the winter passed. George’s sore throat continued to worsen throughout the day, but he never thought twice about slowing down or taking it easy.

Washington went to bed early that night only to wake up at 3am with a severe inability to breathe. His breathes were few and far between so he called for the local doctors to come treat him. In those days, the popular medical belief was that if you wanted to get rid of an illness like the one Washington was suffering from, you had to empty the patient of the “bad” blood almost like you would empty the old, dirty oil from your car before putting in the new oil.

This process, called “bloodletting”, went on for an hour or so until the former-president and general of the United States of America who now had less than half of his blood left in his body, took his last breathe.

What killed George Washington wasn’t cancer, a bullet wound, or something major along those lines. What killed our founding father was what started out as a simple cold-like illness known as “acute laryngitis.” But when this simple illness was left unchecked, it quickly turned into something that was powerful enough to take down the most powerful man in our newborn country.

Doesn’t that describe sin perfectly? A small little sin here, a small little sin there. Nothing harmful at first blush. But that sin, no matter how small it starts out, can quickly grow into something that is powerful enough to destroy our lives if we leave it in the darkness for any amount of time. And that’s where Proverbs 28:13 (NIV) comes into play:

“He who conceals his sin does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.”

Just like George Washington’s illness, when sin is left unchecked, it flourishes like a cancer that devastates every part of us – we CANNOT prosper or succeed in life according to Proverbs 28:13 when sin is present. That’s why it is so important to recognize and confess our sins early and often.

Look, God certainly doesn’t want us to sin, but He’s also God – He knows that you and I are going to fall on our faces from time to time. What God is looking for is not so much a perfect person, but a repentant person whose heart crumbles when they give into temptation.

Just consider for a moment the “man after God’s own heart” – David. He certainly wasn’t a perfect person, was he? He had sex with a woman who wasn’t his wife and then proceeded to murder her husband to cover up for the wrongs he had done. An adulterer and a murder…that’s the man after your own heart, God?

But here’s what made David so special – after he fell down, he recognized his sin, begged God for help, and displayed true remorse over his sinful actions. Just check out the psalm he wrote after being exposed for his sin – Psalms 51 – it is chalk full of remorse and true grief. And as David was winding down this famous psalm, he penned, “You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one. You do not want a burnt offering. The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.” (Psalms 51:16-17, NLT). God isn’t looking for anything other than a truly broken and remorseful heart when we fall down.

The takeaway from this week that I want you to remember is this: God can’t heal what you conceal. Proverbs 28:13 says this much and the sad but true story of George Washington dying from a small infection that he kept “hidden” from doctors and medicine before it was too late illustrates this point – if you keep your sins in the darkness, God can’t heal you.

But here’s the good news – just as God can’t heal what you conceal, He will always heal what you reveal. Check out what 1 John 1:9 (NIV) says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and purify us of all unrighteousness.” When we bring our sins into the light before the loving and forgiving Father, He works on our behalf to help us abolish the strongholds that that sin may currently have in our lives.

The choice today is yours: you can either hide your sin from God, or you can confide your sin in God, but you can’t do both. Which will you choose to do today?