Tag Archives: confessing sin

April 26, 2023 · 5:37 AM

Receiving God’s Mercy

When I was in high school, my English teacher had our class read “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The main character, Hester Prynne, had a baby out of wedlock in Puritan New England. She was shunned by the town and was forced to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her clothing for “adulteress”. No matter how much they pressed her, she would not reveal the father. It wasn’t until the end that it was the town reverend, Arthur Dimmesdale, who fathered her child. His guilt was eating him up inside and killing him. As he lay dying, he opened his shirt to reveal to all that he had a scarlet “A” on his chest. He lived with an unconfessed, hidden sin that destroyed him, his life and the life he could have lived.

Not long after Israel defeated Jericho, they headed for the city of Ai. They were feeling confident in God and themselves. They only sent a few thousand mento fight this battle. What they didn’t know was that Achan had kept something from Jericho that God had said to set apart for Himself. The men were defeated and ran back afraid. A Hans hidden sun had kept them from victory. When Joshua went to the Lord, he was led to Achan’s tent where he had buried the object. While no one else knew about his hidden sin, God did. Once it was brought to light and handled, the Israelites went back to Ai and won the victory.

Proverbs 28:13 says, “People who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy” (NLT). Since sin entered the world, it has tried to get us to hide it from others and God. As long as it is hidden, it has power and control over us. Revealing it to God and others breaks that power and we receive forgiveness. Don’t listen to the lie that you will never be forgiven for it or that no one will accept you. Those lies are to hold you back in fear and away from all that God has for you. Like Arthur Dimmesdale, it will eat you up,inside. Like the Israelites, it will keep you from victory. When you confess it, you will receive God’s mercy and His blessings will return.

Photo by Daniel Joshua on Unsplash

Mercy And Healing

Have you ever done something wrong and then tried to cover it up? Of course you have. You’re human. There’s something inside of us that think if we cover it up, no one will know and it will go away. I’ve been trying it since I was a kid. In fact, my friends and I once started a fire when we were young. When it started smoking a lot, we tried to cover it up…with dried up pine needles. The fire roared even bigger. Instead of asking an adult for help, we went to my friend’s brother who was only two years older. By the time he realized he couldn’t put it out either, a neighbor saw the blaze and called the fire department who came and prevented a huge forest fire. By then, there was still significant damage we could have avoided had we confessed sooner.

I’ve found that people are more willing to forgive your shortcomings when you’re open and honest about them. But there’s this voice in our heads that creates doubts and insecurities in us. It tells us, “If they knew this about you, they would never talk to you.” When we listen to that voice, we choose to cover up our sins, failures and shortcomings which compounds the problem. We know it doesn’t work, but we try anyway thinking we might get away with it this time. The temptation to cover things up is such a challenge that it’s often more tempting than the temptation to sin. The problem is that sin covered up is unconfessed sin.

Proverbs 28:13 says, “If you cover up your sin you’ll never do well. But if you confess your sins and forsake them, you will be kissed by mercy” (TPT). We confess our sins to God for forgiveness. We confess them to others for healing. We need to get better at showing people mercy for their confessed sins. That’s the only way to break this cycle of covering up sins. We all sin, and we all need mercy and grace from each other. Jesus said it was the merciful who will obtain mercy. Let mercy and healing flow from you today.

Photo by Joseph Pearson on Unsplash

Throwback Thursday is a feature I’m using to help build some margin into my schedule to pursue other ventures. Each Thursday I’ll be bringing you a previously written devotional that still speaks encouragement to us from God’s Word.