Welcome to another day the Lord has made that we should rejoice and be glad in. (Psalms 118:24)

Today we will seek instruction on unburdening ourselves from the guilt and stain of sin.

1 John 1:9 (KJV) promises…
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Consider…
There’s an old Scottish proverb that many of us have heard. The proverb is, “Confession is good for the soul.” It refers to the idea of coming clean with sins and shortcomings that may weigh heavily on one’s heart in order to feel better and obtain peace.

Today’s verse is the backbone of this saying, yet it means so much more than feeling better and obtaining peace. Let’s look more closely at some benefits of confessing our sins, according to the verse itself…

• Our confession of sin opens the door to God’s faithfulness. You see, although our sins show our unfaithfulness to God, they have no bearing on His faithfulness to us. That’s because, as it says in 2 Timothy 2:13 (NLT), “If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is.” God’s faithfulness is not reciprocal, meaning based on what we do. Rather, God’s faithfulness is based solely on who He is and what He desires. Think about it, if God wanted an eternal relationship with us so bad that Jesus died for our sin, then it makes total since that He would be faithful to His desire and restore our broken relationship with Him, because of sin, when we confess it to Him.
• Next, our confession of sin acknowledges the justness of God. Think about when someone has wronged you, more than an apology, you want acknowledgement. That’s because acknowledgement deomonstrates ownership, understanding and agreeing of the transgressors offense. So our confession to God is an admission that, like David in Psalms 51:4 (NLT), we own, understand, and agree with God about our sin. He said, “Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just.” Thus, confession acknowledges God is right about our sin and just in His response to it. What’s His response? The same as it was when Jesus died for us, before we accepted Him, GRACE. Our confession re-engages God’s Righteousness At Christ’s Expense, also known as JUSTification.
• Continuing on through today’s verse, we see that our confession of sin activates forgiveness and cleansing by Him. Like David, we should confess and pray, “God, be merciful to me because of your faithful love. Because of your great compassion, erase all the wrongs I have done. Scrub away my guilt. Wash me clean from my sin.” – Psalms 51:1‭-‬2 ERV. I love the word choices used in these verses. Notice David used words like erase (blot, in other translations), scrub and wash. That’s what Christ’s blood does for us, when we confess our sins to God. However, even more mind-blowing than the atoning blood of Jesus, is the fact that Jesus Himself is interceding on our behalf with God the Father. Hebrews 7:25‭-‬27 (ERV) explains, “So Christ can save those who come to God through him. Christ can do this forever, because he always lives and is ready to help people when they come before God. So Jesus is the kind of high priest we need. He is holy. He has no sin in him. He is pure and not influenced by sinners. And he is raised above the heavens. He is not like those other priests. They had to offer sacrifices every day, first for their own sins, and then for the sins of the people. But Jesus doesn’t need to do that. He offered only one sacrifice for all time. He offered himself”. This means when we confess our sins to God, our big brother Jesus asks our Heavenly Father to forgive us. In my sanctified imagination, I picture Jesus standing in front of our Father, with His nailed scarred hands and feet, saying they’ve admitted they’re wrong, I’ve already taken their punishment, let’s forgive them.

So today, God’s encouraging you to unburden yourself from the guilt and stain of sin, by confessing it to Him. He promises when you do, you’ll…

• See His Faithfulness
• Experience His Grace-laced Justness
• Activate His blood cleansing Forgiveness

Let’s close with a final encouragement from God’s word. Micah 7:18‭-‬19 (ERV) declares…
There is no God like you. You take away people’s guilt. God will forgive his people who survive. He will not stay angry with them forever, because he enjoys being kind. He will come back and comfort us again. He will throw all our sins into the deep sea.

Confessing your sins to God is the unburdening of them and reconnecting with Him.

Today’s song is…
Confession (Guilty)
https://youtu.be/x9wvErG02GU?si=85Xhhmok3QPcDERi

Blessings 4HG (1 Corinthians 10:31)