CHRIST

Devotional: Confession

In his book, The Hour That Changes the World, Dick Eastman defines confession as, “the act of declared admission.” In essence, when we confess as a form of prayer, we speak truth to God about the reality of ourselves in light of who He is. The Greek meaning of the word confess that we find in the New Testament means, “to agree with God.” We agree with God when we speak the truth about ourselves, and the truth about God.

Often we think of confession as just a verbal accounting of the things we’ve done wrong. And though this is a part of confession, it is not the whole. It is vitally important that we give an account of our wrong doings and hear ourselves say them. It somehow makes our sins more real and shows us the depravity of our own sick hearts. But confession is more than this.

Confession becomes more when we confess that Jesus is Lord and tell Him and others of His greatness. It becomes more than a list of missteps when we declare that He is our all-powerful, creator and give verbal admission to our need for God and to our dependency upon Him. When we tell Jesus that we long for heaven and express our undying gratitude for the fact that His justice coupled with His grace and mercy saves us from an eternity without Him, we are making confession less about ourselves and more about Him. This is Christ-like confession, always pointing others away from ourselves and toward our Savior.

The great theologian, Andrew Murray once said, “God cannot hear the prayers on our lips often because the desires of our heart after the world cry out to Him much more strongly and loudly than our desires for Him.” Our hearts, minds, souls, and our lips need to get to a place of “Christ-confession” – that is of vocalizing our love and passion for Him, admitting the depth of our depravity without Him, and declaring our unwavering affection and gratitude for Him.

This week as we confess, let’s do so with reverent awe and acknowledgement of Jesus who promised us that if we confess Him before others, He will also confess us before His Father. (Matthew 10:32) Let us focus our prayers for the next five days on asking God to give us an unwavering desire to confess the Gospel by telling others of the impact it has had on our lives.

And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. – John 17:3

We confess: Confess Jesus as Savior and Lord and ask Him for a desire to proclaim this to others. Ask Him for an unrelenting desire to tell others about His great love. Ask God to give our church a voice that is heard louder than that of the world as we proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord for His glory.