Have you ever played Hide and Seek with little kids? I mean the ones who aren’t quite old enough to get it? So they stick their head under the table but the whole rest of their body is in plain sight.
That’s kind of what it’s like trying to hide your sin from God. We sort of think to ourselves that if we don’t think about it too hard and can’t see it, that it will just go away, like we won’t have to confront it …or be confronted about it. So we close our eyes to sin, or stuff it down in some drawer. We just don’t talk about it.
But listen to David in Psalm 32. “For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.”
David gives us a picture of what it’s like to refuse to acknowledge our sin before God. What we want is for our sin to go away when we ignore it, but the reality is unconfessed sin weighs on us and saps our spiritual strength. It’s a bit like cancer—eventually it will effect the whole system.
That’s why confession of sin is an integral part of prayer. It’s clearing our accounts with God, making things fresh. And with what Jesus has done, we don’t ever have to worry about being condemned by God for our sin. Instead, we know that real forgiveness awaits us for our sincere confessions. Here’s David again: “I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.”
Pray with me. Father, I’m sorry for the ways that I’ve run away from you and tried to hide my sin from your sight. I know that you love me, but I’m afraid of dealing with what I’ve done. Please remind me of the promises I have in Jesus, that you forgive those who confess their sin before you in his name. What hope have we except in him? So it’s in his name we pray. Amen.
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