Message #15 (of 20) from the PrayerPower radio series
"Jesus' Teaching on Prayer"

by Kaye Johns

If we are Christians, born again into the kingdom of God, our personal fellowship, our spiritual intimacy with the Lord is at stake if we fail to confess our sins.

In Jesus’s earliest teaching on prayer He taught, through the model prayer, that we are to confess our sins to our Father as part of the daily pattern of prayer: "Forgive us our trespasses..." [Matthew 6:12]. Though we are saved, we continue to sin [1 John 1:10]. If that sin is not dealt with through confession--agreeing with God that it is sin, that it is wrong, that we are sorry--our fellowship is interrupted because God, Who is holy, cannot tolerate any sin in His presence.

That’s why Jesus told Peter in John 13, when He was washing the disciples feet, "Unless I wash you, you have no part with me. ...A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean." [John 13:8-10] This is a picture of the saved--cleansed, but feet soiled with sin. That sin must be confessed; his feet must be kept clean.

Is confession absolutely necessary? Only if we want our prayers to be heard and answered [Isaiah 59:2, Psalm 66:18, Proverbs 28:9, Ezekiel 14:3]. God’s word tells us that if we harbor iniquity in our hearts, those unconfessed sins will have hidden His face from us so that He will not hear [Isaiah 59:2]. A pattern of unconfessed sins indicates deliberate disobedience, and God takes that very seriously.

Pray with me now -- Father help us not to take sins lightly. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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