Sincere Confession Essential

The apostle says, “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed.” James 5:16. Confess your sins to God, who only can forgive them, and your faults to one another. If you have given offense to your friend or neighbor, you are to acknowledge your wrong, and it is his duty freely to forgive you. Then you are to seek the forgiveness of God, because the brother you have wounded is the property of God, and in injuring him you have sinned against his Creator….

True confession is always of a specific character, and acknowledges particular sins. They may be of such a nature as to be brought before God only; they may be wrongs that should be confessed to individuals who have suffered injury through them; or they may be of a public character, and should then be as publicly confessed. But all confession should be definite and to the point, acknowledging the very sins of which you are guilty.5Steps to Christ, 37, 38.

Many, many confessions should never be spoken in the hearing of mortals; for the result is that which the limited judgment of finite beings does not anticipate…. God will be better glorified if we confess the secret, inbred corruption of the heart to Jesus alone than if we open its recesses to finite, erring man, who cannot judge righteously unless his heart is constantly imbued with the Spirit of God…. Do not pour into human ears the story which God alone should hear.6Testimonies for the Church 5:645.

The confession that is the outpouring of the inmost soul finds its way to the God of infinite pity.7Steps to Christ, 38.

Your sins may be as mountains before you; but if you humble your heart, and confess your sins, trusting in the merits of a crucified and risen Saviour, He will forgive, and will cleanse you from all unrighteousness…. Desire the fullness of the grace of Christ. Let your heart be filled with an intense longing for His righteousness.8The Acts of the Apostles, 566.
The Faith I Live By p. 128
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Prayer Requests
—-I have an important unspoken prayer request. Buck
—-Please pray for a friend whose daughter died last night and that whatever is causing my right knee to lock up is completely healed. Mimi
—-Please pray, I’m having to take dialysis soon and I’m scared. Dean
—-my friend’s brother has been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer his name is Kevin please keep him in your prayers. Cora
—-Please pray for our dog Moose.
—-Please pray for Jayne who is in the hospital. Brooks
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Dear Friends,

From the age of 10, my grandfather spent very little time at home. He had decided that living the life of a hobo was preferable to a home with an abusive father. He would come home periodically, however, as he loved his dear mother and wanted her to know that he was all right. The rest of the time, he lived off what fish he could catch and wild edibles. He often traveled up and down the east coast of the USA by riding on a train, not as a paying passenger, but hidden away in a boxcar. He met many interesting characters who taught him ways of survival that he needed to know.

Riding the rails was a very dangerous way to travel even in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. One day, the railroad company hired a man to catch all the hobos who were riding for free. This man was large and looked very tough and all the men who road the rails were afraid of him. This man’s reputation grew and grew with the telling. By this time my grandfather was a tough teenager, who had learned things the hard way. He had faced many dangers and felt well able to take care of himself. He had heard all the stories about this security guard. He hoped that he would never meet him.

One day, he decided to catch a ride on the train. He sneaked into the railway yard and grabbed the ladder that was at the end of a boxcar as the train went slowly by. He hoped that he was not seen, but the security guard he had spotted him. This security guard had captured many other men who had ridden without paying and he was sure that he would catch my grandfather also. Grabbing the ladder on a nearby boxcar, the man climbed up and onto the boxcar’s top.

As Grandpa peeked over the top of the boxcar to see if he could find a better place to ride, he saw the guard coming his way. Immediately he ducked down hoping that he had not been seen. In the several minutes he had before the man got to him, he had a decision to make. The train was going faster now and my grandfather decided that it was going too fast for him to jump off or be thrown off.

He decided that he must either fight the guard or bluff him. He chose the latter. Climbing up the ladder when he was sure the guard was right there, he sprung up onto the top of the boxcar right in front of the guard. Looking his meanest, he faced this huge strongman. The guard told him that he was going to throw him off the train. Although my grandfather was scared, he did not let it show. He told the man, in his meanest voice, that he had a gun and would blow his head off if he tried it. That big security guard showed that he was a coward at heart. Even though that guard did not see a gun, he was afraid at the mere mention of the word. He backed down and left my grandfather alone. Grandpa was greatly relieved as he knew that he was no match for that huge man.

How often, we are like that guard. We profess to be a Christian, but it is all a show. Inside we are “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” Rev 3:17 Isaiah strips away all of the pretense, saying, “we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away” “the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.” Isa 64:6; 1:5, 6

Our Dear Saviour declared to the Pharisees of old, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.” Matt 23:25-28

No matter what we profess, it is worthless without the love of God dwelling within. Jesus tells us, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” Matt 7:21-23

How important it is to have that cleansing that only Jesus can give. He bids us, “Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Isa 1:16-18 If we truly experience this cleansing, we will not be “all show” like that security guard. We will truly become a new creature. (2 Cor 5:17) We will have a new heart, new thoughts, new likes, new dislikes. Profession does no good without a change of heart. We cannot give it to ourselves. It comes from the Great Re-Creator Who promises, “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. Eze 36:26,27

May we go beyond a mere outward appearance of religion and be true-hearted Christians is my prayer.

Rose

Source: https://rosesdevotional.org/sincere-confession-essential-2.html