CREED, Rebuilding Your Family FortressSample

9. The Course of Confession

When it comes to confession, we often view it in one of two extremes…

Firstly, we think that confession only needs to happen once when we confess our belief in Christ, pray a repentant prayer, and then we’re set for life. Or, secondly, we fall into the guilt trap, despite being saved by grace, always feeling as if we must ask for forgiveness for everything before God will see us as righteous again, even paying for sins ourselves and continuously bringing up things already dealt with. So, it’s either hyper grace or hyper guilt. Neither of these views are effective or complete.

We’ve been saved by Christ’s grace once and for all (Ephesians 2:8-9). Forgiveness is free when we believe in and accept Jesus as our savior. But it’s only halfway done if that’s where it remains. Like being lost in the wilderness, freely receiving a GPS as a gift, and then only putting it in our backpack while still wandering in the wild, never to find the road back to civilization. If we truly accept the grace of God in our lives, we will truly make use of it to grow closer to Him and become the men we were meant to be (Ephesians 2:10).

This happens through allowing God to search our hearts and reveal to us the flaws left in our character (Psalm 139:23-24). We can boldly come to God to become more like Christ (Hebrews 4:14-16). And as such we should also confess our shortcomings to God and each other, truly repenting and then growing (James 5:16).

It takes courage to search your soul and confess your sins. It takes a true man to admit when he’s wrong. Especially a man growing into maturity in Christ. Maturity is not a case of age, accomplishment, or knowledge and experience either. Maturity starts with taking responsibility – especially responsibility for one’s own actions. And when we take responsibility for our actions, we change our wrongful behavior accordingly. That’s true repentance. The course of confession should always result in true repentance. Otherwise, it’s only empty words, thoughts, or religious ritual.

If our hearts remain pure and righteous, we will be enthusiastic about maintaining an excellent character and attitude towards confession and repentance. Our devotion as godly men, husbands and fathers are not seen in a once off sinners’ prayer, but rather in consistently pursuing God’s heart without guilt, understanding that our hearts were won by Him on the cross, free of charge, but at the highest price. The outcome of this is relationship with God, being tuned into the Holy Spirit within us. This will always lead us to real confession. As often as is truly needed.

Without real confession, we cannot have true repentance. And without repentance that flows from our relationship with God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we cannot uphold our CREED.

Inspect your own walls:

1. What, if you’re being honest, have your thoughts on confession mostly been?

2. How can you find the balance between living a worry-free grace-filled life, while also actively searching your heart and mind to confess and repent, as and when needed?

3. As seen in James 5:16, what must you confess today and have someone pray about with you? Remember, when we confess openly and repent, we are made righteous in Christ.
As such our prayers for one another are powerful to yield the necessary results…