Revival PrayingSýnishorn

Revival praying always begins with CONFESSION

Confession starts in the heart and comes out of the mouth. We are told that Ezra was “astonished” by sin (v. 3-4). Are we astonished at sin? In verse 6, Ezra said he was “ashamed” over the sins of his people. Sin has become so socially acceptable that people have lost their shame. The conscience of a nation has been defiled, and even believers have grown callous to sin. This is not just true in the vilest elements of our society. The most deceptive and dangerous wickedness is not the evil around us but the sin and filthiness that subtly creeps into our hearts and homes. We must see our sin as God sees it. We must see ourselves as God sees us. Then we must say about our sin what God says about it.

Ezra was a holy man of God, but he included himself in the prayer of confession. He confessed not the sins of others alone but “our iniquities” and “our trespass.” No one can be right with God without seeing the sinfulness of his own heart. Revival is not sinners getting saved—it is God’s people getting right. “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God” (1 Peter 4:17a). What does it mean to “confess?” Many people think that confession means to plead and beg God for forgiveness, but it simply means “to say the same thing.” When we finally say the same thing about our sin that God says, when our heart is turned to agreement with God’s heart, then we can be right with Him. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness .”

You don’t have to convince God to do what He already wants to do! You simply need to be convinced that what God already said about you is true: you are a sinner. The moment that you agree with God is the moment of forgiveness and cleansing. When a sinner comes clean with God, then God makes the sinner clean (Psalm 51:1-7).

Ezra made no excuse for sin. He called sin by the strong, descriptive words God frequently used: “iniquities” and “trespass.” Iniquities suggest the idea of crookedness. The righteous God is always straight, but sin is a failure to walk in God’s straight way, a perversion of truth. To trespass is to cross God’s line. We must confess that our lives have fallen short of God’s perfect standard and gone beyond His holy law in so many ways.

It is much easier to confess someone else’s sin than to confess our own. We can spot another person’s sin at 100 yards and tell them all about it, but the most difficult thing is to see the sinfulness of our souls and the coldness of our hearts—our pride, lust, arrogance, our stubbornness, our rebellion. As the old spiritual so well expresses, “It’s not my brother or my sister, but it’s me, oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer.”

Do not begin with what your family or our country needs to confess, but instead, whatever might be between you and God at this moment. Are you, as an older generation used to say, “on praying ground?” That is the first step because you cannot pray with confidence while holding on to unconfessed sin. How can we expect God to answer us while we are ignoring Him? “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear” (Isaiah 59:2). There is no exception to this prayer principle: “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me” (Psalm 66:18).

Is this your desire? Revival is not everyone else getting right with God; it is us allowing God to do a thorough work in our hearts. Confession is the doorway to revival praying.