The Discipline of Confession
Welcome back y’all! I (Raquel) am so excited you are here. In case you missed it, Joshua and I have started a series of blog posts on the 12 Disciplines of our faith. If you haven’t read our Intro and first Discipline of Study, I definitely encourage you to go check them out. (Not now though..later!) As Joshua mentioned in our last post, our goal is to share with you the practices that we have found to be effective in our pursuit of Jesus. This is not an exhaustive study on the disciplines, but personal reflections on each discipline and how they have practically changed our lives.
Today I get to talk about a good one. Confession. Now before you go hit that back arrow, wait...this is good stuff right here. When practiced regularly and biblically, confession is a gift, a huge and beautiful gift. I don’t think that is a phrase we hear often in our circles, but it is true and today my goal is to show you why.
This past week I was able to attend a women’s leadership conference in Dallas, Texas. When I returned home, friends kept asking me, “How was it?” and using one word I would reply, “heavy”. See, this was not your traditional women’s conference where they remind you how beautiful you are and every speaker quotes Psalm 139:14 “…you are fearfully and wonderfully made…”, (even though it is true). Nope, they were getting to the root of some things.
Day one began with “biblical leadership” and ended with hundreds of female leaders crammed in a sanctuary, confessing sins out loud to one another (to a room filled with people you knew or didn’t know). I mean hard stuff was being confessed, from sexual sin, jealousy, envy, competition and doubt (just to name a few).
It. Was. Intense. Then, there I was knowing I needed to confess as well. I could feel my heart racing and pounding. I could feel the resistance in my mind and physical body. So much of myself was telling me, “you don’t have to do this, you don’t have to shout this out loud to a room full of people, you could just confess it later to a friend. It’s fine.” Thankfully, I knew better not to listen to that voice and so when there was finally a pause in the room I shouted (Yea...so all could hear. No, not easy. Yes, super scary.): “I have allowed pride and stubbornness to have a hold over my marriage!” and got quiet. I immediately started to tremble as tears rolled down my hot flushed cheeks. I silently asked the Lord to forgive me for allowing this and asked him for freedom and the ability to break partnership with these sins.
Once everyone was done confessing, we read scripture over one another and then began to break partnerships with the sin. That’s right folks, just as we had the courage to shout out our sin, we were being challenged to shout out the truth, what Jesus was proclaiming over our situation. Guys, for some reason this was harder than confessing to a room full of strangers (we probably know why). If I was nervous the first time, boy I was having a hard time breathing the second time around. I could sense God asking me stand this time and shout out the truth. I knew that if I didn’t do it immediately, I’d never do it. So after the third or fourth person, I stood up and started shouting with my eyes shut tightly and fist clenched:
“Pride and stubbornness have no power over my marriage!” *Deep Breath* “Pride and stubbornness have no power over any of our marriages!”
Thinking back, I must’ve looked like a superhero about to blast off, but I didn’t care. Immediately, I felt free, light and I could breath. My heart was racing, but I knew that moment meant something. I was confident something had happened, something had shifted.
See, confession belongs to repentance, they go hand in hand. Conviction of sin had led me to confession, confession led me to repentance and then brought me right back to confession. The word confession means to make known or to acknowledge. The Hebrew word for it is YADA, which is the same word seen in the book of Genesis when Adam and Eve stood naked before each other.
There is tremendous power found in confessing our sins before God. When we stand in YADA before the Lord we stand bare before Him. Nothing to hide behind, no secrets, no excuses, just us, there, present. And here is the thing we need to understand: The discipline of confession is not only something you do one time when you accept Christ. It is the intentional and regular practice of exposing ourselves before the Lord. That means every time we come to him, we take it all off, we pull down our guards, our fronts and show Him all we’ve got going on. Nothing is hidden from him (not that we could hide anything anyway) and we are choosing to intentionally show him all of ourselves. We are choosing to not hold back anything from our Maker.
So how do we do this? Simple. Speak it. Every time you enter into time with the Lord start here and say “Here I am. Naked. Bare. I am taking down all the guards down, no fronts, no pretending. Here I am search me and see me”. Then you get quiet and you wait for Him to speak to you whether through a word, vision, impression, etc. Yes, He already sees you and He knows it all, but speaking this aloud is positioning your heart to receive the full gift of confession.
Now some of you may be asking, “Why in the world would I want to make this a daily practice? This sounds awful, awkward and uncomfortable. No thank you.”
Psalm 32:3:
“When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and all day long I groaned.”
David felt the weight of his sin in such a way that it began to affect him physically. Unconfessed sin has the ability to begin to affect us in the physical!
Psalm 32:5:
“Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” And you forgave the guilt of my sin.”
The weight of his sin led him to confession and repentance. David received forgiveness.
Psalm 32:6-7
Therefore, let all the godly pray to you while there is still time, that they may not drown in the floodwaters of judgment. For you are my hiding place; you protect me from trouble. You surround me with songs of victory (deliverance).
Confession allowed David to feel the weight of God’s grace. This grace led David to rejoicing.
In the book Dance, Stand, Run, Jess Connelly says, “The Lord allows us to feel the weight of our sin, so that we can experience the strength of His grace”. Powerful stuff right there. See, when the Lord reveals sin and we know we must confess, it is not so that we can beat ourselves over and over again. The Lord reveals sin in us so that we can experience the strength of his grace.
It is the story of the Samaritan woman (John 4), whom after Jesus revealed her sin to her, she went off running into to town shouting “Come meet the man who told me everything I ever did!” What should have brought her shame (being exposed, naked, bare), led her to rejoicing and telling everyone they had to meet this man!
True confession feels good. It brings freedom from ourselves and striving. It should lead us to rejoicing. Why? Because things happen. We receive God’s grace, love and freedom. We feel the weight of sin being lifted off and His grace and truth they come rushing in.
Now am I saying confession is the magical solution to our sin? Just confess and you will never struggle again? No, but it is the gift God has given us. It is a tool we get to use in order to consistently walk in victory. We are victorious because confession gives us a divine reset. It helps us reset to who God originally designed us to be.
So what if you confess today and fail tomorrow? Confess and repent again tomorrow. Begin practicing all the disciples of our faith and I guarantee you will begin to see fruit (Galatians 5 fruit).
Here is the challenge:
During your secret place time, stand bare before the Lord. Ask the Lord to search your heart. If He reveals sin in you, confess it. Once the sin is confessed, rejoice in knowing there is no more judgement. Speak the truth over yourself as much as necessary. Remember, disciplines take practice, but it will become easier and more rewarding as we exercise it.
Comment below and let us know how it goes. We’d love to hear from you.
Psalm 32:11
So, rejoice in the Lord and be glad, all you who obey him! Shout for joy, all you whose hearts are pure!
May our confession lead us to rejoicing in Him.
Until next time,
We are Ecclesia
