Message #7 (of 20) from the PrayerPower radio series "Confession"

by Kaye Johns

When we talk about taking sin seriously in our lives, there is a good reason. When we do, it allows us to recognize sin for what it is, and it presents us with the choice--whether or not to ask the Lord to forgive us. Every time we rush through our prayers without naming our sins and asking forgiveness, we make that choice, and it’s costly.

David, in Psalm 51, helps us understand what we give up if we don’t take sin -- and confession -- seriously. He prays, "Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity." [Ps. 51:9] Blot out? As in erase? Leaving no record? Will God do that?

He’s said He will many times in Scripture. In Micah: "...you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea." [Micah 7:18-19] In Isaiah: "...you have put all my sins behind your back." [Isaiah 38:17] In Psalm 103: "...as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us." [Psalm 103:12]

God is willing not only to forgive but to forget our sins. Don’t these verses -- with their clear word pictures showing God hiding His face from our sins, blotting them out, putting them behind His back, casting them into the sea, removing them as far as the east is from the west -- imply that our sins are clearly before Him, until we choose to confess so that He can forgive and forget? Do we really want our sins before Him all the time?

As in everything about the Christian walk, the choice is ours, to confess our sins, or not.

Pray with me now -- Lord, help us to recognize our sins and confess them, even as we commit them, so that You may blot them out of Your mind. Amen.

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