Day 8: Honesty

When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away
Through my groaning all day long.
For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;
My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. Selah.
I acknowledged my sin to You,
And my iniquity I did not hide;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”;
And You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah.

Psalm 32:3-5 (NASB 95)

Confession is a window to greater depth with God. Without confession, we face the reality of sin’s curse on our lives. Scripture even talks about our prayers being hindered because of sin (1 Peter 3:7; James 4:6).

Often times when we pray, we avoid honesty with God and display a “prayer mask” of fervency, piousness, or happiness which we hope will conceal what is really going on underneath.

Why do we do this with an omniscient God? We can be afraid to face our failures and repeated sins; we feel admitting this to God shows our apparent lack of progress, or our unwillingness to let go of something. Yet, the truth is that:

“Hiding our sin will disrupt our prayers more than the sin itself.”
-Skye Jethani

If you desire a deeper faith, make honesty with God a regular part of your prayer time.

In the past, which mask have you used to conceal what’s going on underneath?

What do you need to confess to Him today?

Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Hebrews 4:16 (NIV)