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If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9
D.L. MOODY
There may be some confessions we need to make to be brought into close fellowship with God. We must cooperate with God. If there is any sin in my heart that I am not willing to confess and to give up, I need not expect a blessing. The men who have had power with God in prayer have always begun by confessing their sins. Take the prayers of men like Jeremiah and Daniel. We find Daniel confessing his sin when there isn’t a single sin recorded against him.
ERWIN LUTZER
There was a time when I had two briefcases: one for travel and one for daily use. Once, after a trip, a flight attendant handed me a ham sandwich carefully wrapped in cellophane. I put it in my travel briefcase and forgot about it. A few days later, there was a musty smell in my study. A month later, when I had to travel, I found the rotten sandwich, all mushy and green. Just so, we carefully wrap our sin, and set it aside, but there is always a musty odor; try as we might, we cannot keep it hidden, it is there to trouble us and to ruin our otherwise normal life.
John is writing to believers. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). When we trust in Christ as Savior, we begin to walk with God, but the sin we tolerate ruins our fellowship, it creates a barrier between us and God. We might try to put it out of our mind, but like the ham sandwich, we are reminded it is there and will steal our joy. John tells us we can “walk in the light, as [God] is in the light” (1 John 1:7), but we can only do that if we are repentant and confess our sins. In fact, if we walk in the light as God is in the light, we have fellowship with God—and God has fellowship with us!
PRAYER
Lord, give me honesty to confess my sins so I might walk in the light and stand before you as forgiven, and we can have fellowship together.REFLECTION QUESTIONS
Just as the sandwich was hidden in the briefcase, what are the "hidden sins" we try to keep secret from others and from God?How does holding onto unconfessed sin create a barrier between us and the joy of walking with the Lord?