Welcome to season 2 of the Determined to Dance podcast. I pray that you’ll be uplifted, encouraged, and will move forward each and every day. Today’s episode, Daily Prayer: We Confess, focuses on bringing our failures, sin, and shortcomings to God.

Show Notes: Daily Prayer: We Confess

Confession. First, I want you to know that I hear you. The topic of sin again? We discussed this in April during the Prayerful Situations series. Wasn’t that enough?

I totally agree. I don’t enjoy the sin that so easily besets me or having to confess, apologize, or swallow my pride.

However, since we’re discussing praying daily, we need to stop here and dwell a moment. I mean, Jesus included sin when He taught us to pray the Lord’s prayer. That makes it vital to understand.

He said “Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us today the food we need, and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.” Matthew 6:9-13 NLT

In the 1828 Webster’s dictionary, sin is the voluntary departure of a moral agent from a known rule of rectitude or duty, prescribed by God; any voluntary transgression of the divine law, or violation of a divine command; a wicked act; iniquity.

Ouch. The word that stood out to me is voluntary. Nobody makes me sin. When I do, it’s a departure from God. I move away from Him. The other word that caught my attention was wicked, which means to turn, depart, fall away.

Jesus points out the solution:

We need to ask the Father for the forgiveness of our sins.
We need to forgive others when they trespass or sin against us.

Sin happens every day. Either by us or against us. Just yesterday, I got angry during a discussion with another person. Now the Bible says to be angry and sin not. It depends on what we do with the anger if we move into sin. I should have let it go. But I meditated on it, and it led me to feel bitter and hateful toward them. And proud that I wasn’t like that. I had my act together.

Or maybe not.

Time to bring my failures, shortcomings, and sin to the Father. I need to tell Him how I feel. That I’m upset and mad and bitter. He already knows so confession is really for me. It somehow lessens the pain and helps to bring what I’ve done into perspective. He cleanses my heart and once more I’m in right relationship with Him. Then I need to forgive the person who upset me. Romans 5:8 says “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

If God showed that much love and forgiveness before I even asked for it, how can I not forgive others? It’s not easy but God will give us the power to forgive if we ask.

How? People differ on ways and steps to forgiving others. I don’t think any are necessarily right or wrong. It really depends on the individual. Here are my thoughts. You can take them and tweak them to help you.

When I’m hurting, denial doesn’t help. I tend to excuse others or pretend I’m not bothered but the first step every time is to stop and admit I’m in pain over something said or done.
I ask God to make me willing to be willing to forgive. I tend to want justice or judgment right away so I need God to start by helping me be willing.
I then realize that damage has been done. The other person might or might not change. I accept where I am and know that no matter what, I can make right or wise choices concerning forgiveness. I need to decide if a discussion with them needs to take place.
Let go of the offense. This involves deciding whether to stay in a relationship with the person in the future. Sometimes, separation is better when there is a refusal to change. I picture myself physically handing a bundle of offense to God. I release it and know He is big enough to handle it.
Choose forgiveness and move on.