What is a prayer of confession?

Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

- Psalm 51:10-13

This week, we're going to be looking at one particular facet of a prayer-filled life: Confession. Praying prayers of confession helps us communicate authentically with God.

What does a prayer of confession look like?

1) Acknowledging

When we pray prayers of confession, we honestly name what we've done. We describe it as wrong, without justifying it. And we bring the consequences to the surface: damaged relationships with God and with each other.

2) Reflecting

In confession there is the opportunity not just for behavior acknowledgment but soul transformation.  If we are willing, we can step into the holy space of opening ourselves up to deeper work of the Spirit to set us free from sin.

In this step of brief reflection, we ask the Holy Spirit to show us any root causes of our behavior. As the Spirit shows us what motives drive us toward sin (control, pride, fear, anxiety, people-pleasing, etc), we receive this insight gratefully. It is always a gift to have the Spirit show us what's driving our self-destructive behaviors. We then ask for the power of the Spirit to displace, heal, and transform whatever has been revealed. 

3) Restoring and Reconciling

Confession is a means to another end. We don't want to sit in our sin forever, to wallow in it. We want to move on. And confession allows us to move on.

When we pray prayers of confession we ask the Lord to restore us and to reconcile us. We ask him to cleanse us from our sin. We ask him to restore the areas where sin has broken our relationships--both with him and with people around us. 

Sometimes that means we are called to complete our confession with a crucial conversation of confession and reconciliation with the person we've sinned against.  

Will you give praying a prayer of confession a try today? 


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