Fri Inspiration

Morning Inspiration with Pastor Merritt

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:9)

Notice the very first part of this, “If we confess our sin.” The first thing you’ve got to do if you are going to deal with sin is admit you’ve got sin in the first place. That is very hard for people to do.

Think about how seldom people even use this word even more. How many times do you hear a politician, an athlete, a celebrity who gets caught in some kind of terrible, terrible sin say something like this, “I made a mistake.” There is a big difference between a sin and a mistake. If a man accidentally walks into a women’s restroom that is a mistake. If a man purposely walks into a woman’s bedroom who is not his wife that is a sin.
Furthermore, you never really feel guilt over a mistake. When we make a mistake what do we do? We shrug our shoulders and say, “Everybody makes mistakes.” Mistakes don’t bring guilt. Sin brings guilt.

That is why a healthy conscience will experience guilt where an unhealthy conscience won’t. A healthy conscience understands the difference between a sin and a mistake.

Once you realize there is a sin problem then the only remedy for that is to confess it. The word “confess” comes from two words in the Greek language – the word “homo” which literally means “the same” and the word “logeo” which literally means “to say.” So the word literally means “to say the same thing.” When you confess sin you simply go to God and say, “I want to say about my sin what you say about my sin. I want to call it what you call it and I want to condemn it the way you condemn it. Do you know why that is so hard for us to do? What you are doing in effect is testifying against yourself.

If you want to have real fellowship with God, if you want to enter into the presence of God and get up close and personal you literally have to come into the “no spin zone.” You can’t spin sin with God. When you mess up you have to fess up.