Prayer as Confession
What does it mean to petition God? Do we have to bribe him to get what we want? Do we demand or coax? Today, we are going to dig into how having a thankful heart can help us blend two seemingly different approaches into one unified method of Godly asking.
Transcript
THE UNIVERSAL EXPERIENCE OF GUILT
“Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”
What do you do with your “debts” or your wrongdoings? It’s a near-universal human experience to feel bad about things we do. We don’t all feel bad over the same things. But we have all felt the sting of guilt or shame. As a result, we all have to do something about those bad feelings. Do you…
Minimize it – “It wasn’t that big of a deal. It’s not like I murdered anybody.”
Make excuses for it – “They deserved it. Life has been hard; I needed this.”
Beat yourself up over it – “I’m such a failure. Idiot! My parents were right.”
Ignore it and wait for it to go away
What’s your go-to strategy?
We all have some strategy for relieving the weight of guilt because it feels horrible. Research has shown that guilt can lead to anxiety, stress, depression, feelings of worthlessness, low self-esteem, regret, loneliness, insomnia, back pain, and negative self-talk.
Here are 5 surprising things guilt does to us, according to research:
Guilty feelings will consume, on average, 5 hours of your week.
Guilt can make you punish yourself. (This is known as the Dobby effect, for all you Harry Potter fans.)
Feeling guilty makes you more likely to assume you’ve harmed others when you haven’t.
Guilty feelings can decrease your focus and make it difficult to concentrate.
And perhaps the strangest… Guilt can make you overestimate your own weight. We literally experience the weight of a guilty conscience.
We have to do something with our guilt; otherwise, it will come out.
GUILT & CONFESSION
So, what do we do with our guilt? The Bible’s answer comes in the fourth line of The Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” This is prayer as confession.
I think it’s easy to have a wrong understanding of confession.
You might see it as embarrassing because you don’t want to admit what you did.
You might see it as losing face, especially if other people found out.
Or, if you come from a Catholic or legalistic background, you might see confession as an obligation.
But none of these get to the heart of confession.
Confession is a cry for relief from the weight of sin. Let that sink in. Confession is a cry for relief from the weight of sin.
DAVID’S CONFESSION
The Bible is full of case studies on the unbearable weight of sin.
Adam and Eve disobeyed God, and they felt shame and hid from Him.
Judas betrayed Jesus, and he hung himself.
King David had an affair, and then he had her husband killed to cover it up.
That’s the one we’re going to talk about today, and the story is told in 2 Samuel 11 and 12. King David ruled Israel around 1,000 B.C., and he’s considered Israel’s greatest king. But he also did some horrendous stuff. A lot of people did a lot of horrendous stuff in the Bible, but because David was a writer, poet, and musician who wrote almost half the Psalms, we get a peek into the heart and soul of a guilty conscience and the incredible relief confession brings.
Scholars believe there are at least two Psalms that David wrote after God convicted him of his sin through the prophet Nathan. You’ve already heard Psalm 51. We’re also going to look at that in parts of Psalm 32.
They beautifully illustrate how confession is a cry for relief from the weight of sin.
Let’s start with Psalm 32, verses 3-4, “3 When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.”
Look at these descriptions:
His bones ached
Groaning all day
He felt a heavy weight
His strength sapped
Medical research has supported all of that.
Here’s how David described it in Psalm 51: “3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.”
Can you feel the guilt in his words? The weight, the condemnation. It’s inescapable. Sin cannot be kept hidden for long. It always comes out, it always festers, and it always grows.
DAVID’S RESTORATION
But it doesn’t have to. There’s one more truth about confession that you need to understand.
Confession makes Christ the rightful owner of your sin and shame.
Isaiah 53:4 prophesies about Jesus, “Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering.”
Hebrews 13:13 described Jesus as “taking on our disgrace.”
1 Peter 2:24 says, “Jesus bore our sins.” He literally carried up our sin.
Now, King David didn’t know Jesus. That wasn’t going to be for another 1,000 years. But the Old Testament sacrificial system taught him that God takes away the guilt of sin when we confess. And that’s exactly what he did.
When the prophet Nathan confronted David about his sin, he broke down and confessed, “13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.”
Here’s how David described this moment in Psalm 32, “5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” And you forgave the guilt of my sin.”
Psalm 51 is even more vivid. “7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. 8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. 9 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. 10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.”
Confession cleans and washes you. We think it brings embarrassment, but it actually brings joy and gladness. It purifies your heart and restores your strength.
How does it do all that? Confession makes Christ the rightful owner of your sin and shame.
Some of y’all are carrying around your sin like you own it. Like you’re your own savior or something. But when you confess to God, you make Christ the rightful owner of your sin. That classic Christian phrase—Jesus died for your sins—is meaningless if you don’t give him your sins.
And when you do, all that spiritual cancer is gone. And it’s taken on by the only one who can handle it—the sinless sacrifice, the perfect Lamb, the Son of God, Jesus.
And when God, through Jesus, is the owner of your sin and shame, he can remove it as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). He can throw them into the deepest part of the ocean (Micah 7:19). He can blot them out; he literally destroys them (Isaiah 43:25).
APPLICATION
So, how do you do it? How do you confess? How do you cry out for relief from the weight of sin? How do you make Christ the rightful owner of your sin?
There are three aspects to confession:
1. Ask forgiveness from God
What do you need God’s forgiveness for?
How do you know what to ask forgiveness for? Ask yourself: Where have you contradicted God’s will or desire for your life?
Not sure? Just Google “bible sin list” and listen for the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
2. Ask forgiveness from others
Who do you need to seek forgiveness from?
Who have you hurt with your words or actions?
As you’re praying, God might bring someone to mind that has been negatively impacted by your sin.
3. Forgive others
Who do you need God’s help to forgive?
Who have you been holding onto anger and resentment against?
Remember the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Forgiving others isn’t optional for the believer.
Forgiveness doesn’t mean you have to immediately trust them again or, in some more serious cases, even have a relationship with them. It only means you no longer hold their actions against them.
CLOSING
Why is confession so important? Because the stakes are enormous.
Listen to what Jesus said immediately after The Lord’s Prayer, “14 If you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
If you are a Christian, you have experienced salvation and forgiveness. You have felt the weight of sin removed from your tired shoulders. But God doesn’t want you to just relish in your own freedom. He wants you to grant that freedom to others. He wants you to forgive. And if you don’t, that says something dire about the state of your soul.
Now, this doesn’t teach that you must forgive others before you can receive forgiveness. Rather, it says that forgiving others is proof that your sins have been forgiven. Forgiving others is proof that Jesus has saved you. Forgiving others is proof that God has transformed your heart.
So, be transformed. Be forgiven. And be a generous forgiver.
