We keep no secrets from God.
Confession is not telling God what we did. He already knows.
Confession is simply agreeing with God that our acts were wrong.
There is an old story about the time Emperor Frederick the Great visited Potsdam Prison. He spoke with the prisoners, and each manclaimed to be innocent, a victim of the system. One man, however, sat silently in the corner.
The ruler asked him, "And you, sir, who do you blame for your sentence?"
His response was, "Your majesty, I am guilty and richly deserve my punishment." Surprised, the emperor shouted for the prison warden, "Come and get this man out of here before he corrupts all these innocent people."
The ruler can set us free once we admit we are wrong.
We do ourselves no favors in justifying our deeds or glossing over our sins.
Some time ago my daughter Andrea got a splinter in her finger. I took her to the restroom and set out some tweezers, ointment, and a Band-Aid.
She didn't like what she saw. "I just want the Band-Aid, Daddy."
Sometimes we are just like Andrea. We come to Christ with our sin, but all we want is a covering. We want to skip the treatment. We want to hide our sin.
How can God heal what we deny?
How can God touch what we cover up?
How can we have communion while we keep secrets?
How can God grant us pardon when we won't admit our guilt?
Ahh, there's that word: GUILT
Isn't that what we avoid?
GUILT. Isn't that what we detest?
But is guilt so bad?
Confession is not telling God what we did. He already knows.
Confession is simply agreeing with God that our acts were wrong.
There is an old story about the time Emperor Frederick the Great visited Potsdam Prison. He spoke with the prisoners, and each manclaimed to be innocent, a victim of the system. One man, however, sat silently in the corner.
The ruler asked him, "And you, sir, who do you blame for your sentence?"
His response was, "Your majesty, I am guilty and richly deserve my punishment." Surprised, the emperor shouted for the prison warden, "Come and get this man out of here before he corrupts all these innocent people."
The ruler can set us free once we admit we are wrong.
We do ourselves no favors in justifying our deeds or glossing over our sins.
Some time ago my daughter Andrea got a splinter in her finger. I took her to the restroom and set out some tweezers, ointment, and a Band-Aid.
She didn't like what she saw. "I just want the Band-Aid, Daddy."
Sometimes we are just like Andrea. We come to Christ with our sin, but all we want is a covering. We want to skip the treatment. We want to hide our sin.
How can God heal what we deny?
How can God touch what we cover up?
How can we have communion while we keep secrets?
How can God grant us pardon when we won't admit our guilt?
Ahh, there's that word: GUILT
Isn't that what we avoid?
GUILT. Isn't that what we detest?
But is guilt so bad?
What does guilt imply if not that we know right from wrong, that we aspire to be better than we are, that we know there is a high country and we are in the low country.
That's what guilt is: a healthy regret for telling God one thing and doing another.
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