Prayer of Confession

This week we are continuing our study of prayer skills. Today, we reach the third skill of prayer--confession.


In Florida Presbytery I was asked to organize prayer at a beach retreat for ministers. I organized the retreat around five one-hour sessions of prayer–one each for praise, thanksgiving, confession petition, and intercession..

The first hour went very well. I asked my colleagues “Gentlemen, tell us what would like to praise God for.”

The ministers were eloquent. They went on and on about the wonderful attributes of God,

The second session went even better. “Gentlemen, tell us what we can thank God for.”

You should have heard it such magnificent prayers! It went far beyond an hour.

For the third session, I asked “Gentlemen, what you would confess.”

It was an awkward silence. There was certainly no rush to confess.

Why is it so hard for us to confess? No one wants to air their dirty linen in public.

Confession (we suppose) is for criminals, adulterers, thieves, and other nasty people. Not for people like us! But God says differently. We should be quick to confess our sins.

The embarrassing nature of confession has caused many Christians to skip this part of prayer altogether. Confession used to have a much more prominent place. Every worship service had a “prayer of confession.” Most Protestant churches have dropped it altogether.

But God commands us to confess. So why don’t we? Why should we confess?

For the reason why, let’s look at what confession really means.

Confession is an interesting word in both Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament word means “to give up,” or literally to put out of one’s hand. When a person brought a sin offering would put his hands on the animal to be slaughtered, and pronounce his sin upon them. By the laying of hands, he conveyed his sins into the animal. In the Old Testament, the confessing of specific sins leads to specific forgiveness.

The New Testament word for confession literally means “To speak with” or “agree.” It is seeing the world the way God sees it We agree with God about the nature of our actions.. We don’t call adultery “a youthful indiscretion” or “a harmless fling”--it is sin. Confession is openly affirming what God already knows.

In the Bible, there are two kinds of confessions--negative and positive. Both need to be included in prayer. It would take too long in one message to deal with them both, so we will focus on negative confessions this week, and positive confessions next week.

Negative confession means acknowledging our sins.

We confess to restore our relationship with others. Numbers 5:5-7. The LORD said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites: 'When a man or woman wrongs another in any way and so is unfaithful to the LORD, that person is guilty and must confess the sin he has committed.

In the Law of Moses, confession is an essential part of justice and restoration. If we are not willing to admit it when we have hurt someone, then we cannot restore our relationship.

We also confess to restore our relationship with God. Ps 38:17-18 says, for I am about to fall, and my pain is ever with me. I confess my iniquity; I am troubled by my sin.

The psalmist is calling on God to help defeat his enemies yet he stops to admit his own sins, too. Other people may or may have sinned against him, but that doesn’t matter. Only God’s support matters. If anything stands between him and God, it must be removed.

Confession is also important to us in the New Testament. James 5:13-16

Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

Healing and forgiveness are tied to confession. Confession of sin is as important in restoration as prayer.

James is not just talking about confessing to God. James uses a slightly different word for “confess” in this passage than what we read in other parts of the Bible. He uses a word that means to agree among yourselves. We must all hear what our confessions are, and agree that God hs forgiven them, so that our relationships will not be affected by them.

So confession has a place, both in private to God and openly with others.

1 John 1:8-9 carries on this theme. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins, and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness.

Confession is not so much about attaining forgiveness for our sins as it is about restoring our health and relationships. God forgives our sins, but confession is necessary for the cleansing.

Think about the Gulf oil spill. When we finally get the oil to stop gushing, it will still take months to clean up that mess. Forgiveness is necessary to stop the gush of poisonous sin and guilt that poisons our lives. Confession is necessary to clean up the damage that it has inflicted.

What does confession do for us? Confession:

• Keeps us humble. We constantly need His help and forgiveness.

• Keeps us from being judgmental. If we are not perfect, how can we judge others?

• Restores our relationships broken by deception and sin..

Confession to others is important, but confession to God is even more important. Confession should be regularly a part of our prayers.

Not all prayers of confession are equally effective, though. When we confess, we should keep some principles in mind.

Make It Specific. It does no good to say “Lord, I am a sinner” if we will not confess our actual sins. It would be like going into a police station and confessing you have committed a crime, then not telling the police what it was. Confession includes what sins you have actually committed.

How can we say we are trying not to abuse our body, when we are not willing to admit that we eat too much, smoke, and don’t get ay exercise? How can we say we have neglected those who are less fortunate, if we don’t give any money to help the poor? How can we say we have not cared for our unbelieving neighbor and not admit that we should have told him about Jesus when we had the chance? Confession that is vague brings no life, and no cleansing.

Make it as frequent as our sin. What if, after we confess, we keep on doing? If we commit a sin a thousand times, Jesus will forgive a thousand times. But we must admit that it is a sin, and ask for cleansing. To keep on sinning when we know it is a sin is to abuse the forgiveness that God has given us. No one declares bankruptcy and immediately gets new credit cards. That would be an abuse of the courts. When we keep sinning we abuse God’s generous forgiveness. But with each confession, God cancels our debt to Him.

Confess each sin only once. People often confuse sin with low self esteem. They feel bad about themselves, so they think that God must feel bad about them, too. These people keep confessing the same sins over and over. The last thing God wants for His children is for them to walk around all day feeling generally guilt for everything.

To confess the same sin twice is to deny the love of God, because we are saying the God did not forgive us the first time. Once we have confessed, whether we feel it or not, we are no longer guilty in God’s eyes. His forgiveness is ours immediately.

A good way to keep our confessions honest is to write them down on paper. Theyn you can look back and see how many times in the day you commit the same sins. This makes you aware of the sin, and helps you to eradicate it from your lives.

Temptations are not sins. We do not confess what we felt like doing unless we have done it, said it, or intended to do it. Being tempted is not a sin. Pray for deliverance from temptation, but forgiveness for sins. Temptation is always present. Sin comes when we welcome it..

Follow it with forgiveness. For each negative admission, have a positive affirmation of forgiveness. 1 John 1:9 is such a promise. God wants to forget our sins—in fact, he already has. All that is left is for us to recognize that forgiveness, given in the cross. No one can out-sin God’s forgiveness.

Public sins should be publicly confessed. Private sins privately. If we have committed a sin against someone, we should confess it to them as well as to God. But if a sin is no one else’s business, then to share it is gossip.

There is an exception to this. Everyone should have friends who are close enough and trustworthy enough to serve as accountability partners. They lovingly keep us on the right track. They ask us the questions we may not want to ask ourselves. How’s your prayer life? What were you looking at last night? Have you made good on what you said you would do? These people also remind us of God’s forgiveness, and encourage us when we improve.



Confession of sin is not all there is to confession, though. If we agree with God, we must also agree with Him regarding the good things and His promises in our lives. This is called affirmation, and it will be the subject of next week’s talk.