But if we confess our sins, God will forgive us. We can trust God to do this. He always does what is right. He will make us clean from all the wrong things we have done. ~ 1 John 1:9 (ERV)
Lord Jesus, confessing our sins is at the same time so simple and so very hard. It's hard because it forces us to recognize our brokenness. It's simple because we know that we can trust you to forgive us and fix us. But sometimes with such easy access to forgiveness we become very casual about our sin.Challenging Words
Sometimes I struggle to find the balance. Yet even though I'm unbalanced, there is something about all that freely given forgiveness that is changing the way I think and approach life. Although I don't agonize or stress over my sin as much as before, I am also finding that there is not as much to agonize and stress over. I'm certainly far from perfect but there seems to be less and less room for sin to sink new roots into my life. And it's not because I'm afraid of what you might do to me. It's not fear but forgiveness that is cleaning me up. Your forgiveness is changing me and that makes me all the more eager to confess that which is not right in my life as soon as your Holy Spirit brings it to my attention. Please continue to empower me to do the hard-but-easy work of repentance. Amen.
- brokenness -- the state of being damaged or broken, not perfect, not living or working properly, another word for sinfulness
- unbalanced -- not evenly distributed, not thinking, feeling, or acting correctly -- When a wheel is unbalanced it does not turn smoothly and so it makes the car or bike move in crazy ways.
- repentance -- the action of changing directions, giving up going in one direction to go in another, leaving sin in order to walk with God