When you mess up and do something wrong – what’s your first response?
Are you quick to confess your sins to God and ask for forgiveness? Or do you try to “cover up” and hide your sin (as if God doesn’t see all things)?
In addition to repenting to God for our sins, it’s crucial in our Christian walk to also confess them to fellow believers – here are a few reasons why.
To start – we’re not suggesting you stand on the street corner and yell out your sins – or tell every person you meet about a personal struggle.
Instead, we are suggesting you find a handful of Christian brothers (if you are male) or sisters (if you’re female) to be able to call – day or night – and confess your sins to.
But why?
Accountability
If you have a stronghold or are struggling through slaying a pattern of sin in your life – having trusted brothers or sisters in Christ to hold you accountable is a must.
Maybe you know you are slipping…
… or perhaps you are blinded and can’t see that you’ve slid back into a particular area of struggle.
Whatever the case – giving those who are closest to you permission to “call you out on your stuff” will help you in your Christian walk.
Even if you are about to sin – being able to call an accountability partner right then and there to pray is a beautiful and vulnerable thing – and may help you make the right decision.
Grace
Sometimes when we mess up, we are the ones hardest on ourselves.
We may feel overcome with shame and remorse, and feel unlovable.
But being able to confess your sins to a fellow Christian and realizing that even after you confess, they still love you and are rooting for you is an act of God’s grace on display.
We won’t always get it right in this life – and while it’s important to have friends who tell us the truth – we also need those who balance it out with love and grace.
Satan tries to get us stuck in shame – even though God reminds us that when we confess, we are cleansed and forgiven.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:19
Seeing grace on display through the people God has placed in our lives can remind us of this core Biblical truth.
Humility
Sometimes in our church circles we get caught up trying to live the “perfect life.”
If we’re not careful, we can be like the Pharisees and become legalistic – thinking we are better than “that sinner” over there in the back pew at church.
But the truth is, none of us are righteous, and we ALL fall short of the glory of God.
When we confess our own sins to another, we are reminded of our own sanctification process, and realize we aren’t better than anybody else.
Confession not only keeps us humble – but it also brings freedom.
Haven’t you felt better when you’ve been carrying the weight of something you did and then you finally say it out loud to another person – and feel a release?
It’s a beautiful feeling!
Sin feeds and grows in the darkness, but by confessing your sins first to God – and then to each other – you can live and walk in the light.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” – John 3:16-17
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