by Jim Hughes
Ps. 32:3-5 When I refused to confess my sin, I was weak and miserable, and I groaned all day long. Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide them. I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the LORD.” And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.
Unconfessed sin haunts us. We cannot get away from what we have done. The Spirit of Christ dogs us and won’t let us forget. Whether or not there are repercussions for our sin on earth, there are in heaven. Unconfessed sins make the soul weak and miserable. Victory eludes us. Peace eludes us.
Unconfessed sin saps the spiritual strength right out of us. We may try to ignore it, but guilt and shame won’t let us. We know God is not okay with us. We know that we are responsible for what we have done and have no one to blame for God’s aloofness in our lives.
Unconfessed sin is like cancer in the soul. If we don’t confess our sin, it begins to grow in our souls. Sin breeds sin and before you know it, the soul is infested with it. Our love for the Lord grows cold. He becomes less and less a factor in our lives. We shove Him out of the way and begin to get swallowed up in the darkness of sin. If we continue to ignore God’s warnings and convicting voice, we will lose all contact with Him.
The good news is that if we confess our sins there is forgiveness. God will never turn away a repentant heart. He will restore the soul to Him and there will be peace and joy once again. God takes away the sin of a repentant heart and removes them from His presence as far as the east is from the west.
God will not make you confess your sins and repent, but He holds you accountable for them. If you choose to carry them around with you, you will never have peace with God.
About the Author:
Spending his formative years in Ft. Wayne, IN, Jim followed the love of his life to southeast Iowa where they married and have spent the majority of their lives. Jim has pastored several churches throughout his life and has worked many years in local factories to help support his family. The father of two married adult children and one son still at home, Jim is a first-time author.
C Through Marriage came into being through many years of pastoral and life experiences. The book first took on a life of its own over 20 years ago when I sought to address the much publicized moral failures of prominent leaders in the church. In the chapter on Chasity, I include the guideliness that I developed then to protect one’s self from such failures.
I am a firm believer in order to make sense out of life you have to use much common sense. We need to get back to the basics of what has worked for many, many generations. If is isn’t broke, why try to fix it? I strive to return to the basics of what really works in all my writings.