Confession - Is It A Good Thing?

Today, let’s talk a bit about confession. Is it a good thing? What is your favorite place to hide when you don’t want to be found? Do you remember when you were little playing hide and seek? Have you ever watched a small child play hide and seek? The small ones are usually not really good at finding hiding places. Rather than covering themselves completely, they tend to put their hands over their eyes. Their thought is, if I can't see you, you can't see me!

But isn't that what we tend to do when we fail to confess our sin in prayer before God? In our sin and shame, we try to hide, but confession is a key component of a close relationship with God. We should never be ashamed to confess our sins before God. Prayer

Today we’ll be using Daniel 9. We have to realize that Daniel didn't have the complete Bible as we know it, but he did have some of it. Daniel looked to the prophet Jeremiah, who lived within a few decades of Daniel. He studied Jeremiah's prophecies and prayed about what he was reading. That, in itself, is good instruction for us. As we read our Bible, we should finish by praying about what we just read and asking God to help us to use it in our daily lives.

Daniel 9:3-4 – “So I turned my attention to the Lord God to seek him by prayer and petitions, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. 4 I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed: Ah, Lord—the great and awe-inspiring God who keeps his gracious covenant with those who love him and keep his commands—"

Sometimes prayer is difficult, and you don't know what to say. Maybe it's because the hurt is too great, or the suffering is too much, or the decision is too overwhelming. You've prayed and prayed until it feels like you're all prayed out. When it all seems to be overwhelming, you find yourself at a loss in prayer. The words won't come, and you simply sit in silence. Has that ever happened to you? But sometimes that time of silence is a good thing as we sit and listen for God's still small voice to speak to us.

But we see with Daniel, who was also in a time of great difficulty, that it's always right to pray God's word. Compare what we just heard of Daniel's prayer to the words of:

Deuteronomy 7:9 – “Know that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps his gracious covenant loyalty for a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commands.”

As we continue to read this prayer of Daniel’s, we're going to find that it's full of the same language that we see throughout many parts of the OT. The words of Scripture are always safe words to pray. Not only that, they're the right words to pray because the same God who first inspired those words is still our God today. We can count on God's words to help us know what to pray when our words fail us.

We can lean on the old promises again and again. We can pray God's word back to Him in all of our troubles. When you can't find the right words as you pray, let God's word do it for you.

Maybe there's something that's heavy on your heart today. Maybe there's something or someone you need to pray about but you can't seem to come up with the right words? Ask God to show you some verses that speak to your heart and then try praying God's word back to Him. You will find a lot of times that in those words your answer will be revealed. So, Daniel confesses:

Daniel 9:5-6 – “we have sinned, done wrong, acted wickedly, rebelled, and turned away from your commands and ordinances. 6 We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, leaders, ancestors, and all the people of the land.”

So Daniel begins his prayer with confession. He was aligning his heart with God. Daniel was at least 80 years old now and must have known that he would never see his homeland again. Yet he still prayed a prayer of confession and petition on behalf of his people, begging God to do the very thing He promised to do in the writings of Jeremiah the prophet: bring the people back to Jerusalem after the given period of time was complete. That period of time was 70 years. God knows the deepest recesses of our hearts better than we do. And again, our lesson in this is when we practice confession, we too align our hearts with God.