Psalm 32:5-6
Then I acknowledged my sin to you
and did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, “I will confess
my transgressions to the Lord.”
And you forgave
the guilt of my sin.Therefore let all the faithful pray to you
while you may be found;
surely the rising of the mighty waters
will not reach them.
2 Chronicles 7:14
If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
Devotion
One of the things we see from this passage is that honest confession to the Lord brings immediate cleansing to our souls. When sin is unconfessed, it allows a root of bitterness to well up in our souls. The simple fact is that when we confess our sins to God He forgives! If we are out of fellowship with God, David instructs us about the simplicity of the way back. You probably have heard it said, “Sin often takes you farther than you want to go, keeps you longer than you want to stay and costs you more than you want to pay.” With God, there is an immediate escape from this dilemma.
In verse six we see that God will rescue a confessor from the flood waters. God moves to rescue us from the mess we’ve made in the first place. David is probably referring to the flood of Noah’s time. Noah was in the ark when the flood came, and that flood which destroyed others simply lifted him up because he was in the ark. The waters of judgment could not reach Noah because he was safe inside of God’s ark. It is true that confession is good for the soul!
Questions to Ponder:
Are you able to honestly confess your sins to God? If not, what keeps you from doing so? Pride sometimes keeps us from confessing our sins. Has spiritual pride taken up residence in your life? How does it make you feel to know that God’s plan is simple, and it has immediate results?
Prayer Points
- Pray and ask the LORD to have the mediations of Your heart and mind to be pleasing to Him.
- Ask God to reveal to You any sin from within, what you think about, what you cherish in your heart. If you are new to this, picture the LORD being inside your thought life, inside your heart…would you be comfortable with Him there? Would He be okay with what is there? If the answer is no, talk to Him about it right now, confess your sin. He is the safest One and He sees/knows it anyway.
- Sometimes our sin stays on the “inside of us” other times what is on the inside overflows from the outside in words, actions, etc. Confess those things to God now.
- Thank God for the immediate forgiveness that you have through Jesus. Spend time praising God for His incredible love for you and that He made a way for you to be in a relationship with Him despite our sin.
Suggested Prayer
Father, I love the reminder that sin will take us where we never thought we would go. That statement really causes me to pause. I confess I want immediate gratification most of the time. I want to be rich, famous, loved and humble all at the same time. Just the fact that I just said, “I want to” reveals to me that I’m so self-centered in most of my thinking. I confess my motives are mostly wrong and not according to You and Your ways. Forgive me Lord and lead me into Your truth. Give me clean hands and a pure heart. I know sin is crouching at the door of my heart, but I ask that you give me the power to avoid sin and pursue Your heart. Lord, thank You for Your commitment to me to walk in the light and to walk humbly before You my King and my God! Thank You for Your forgiveness and mercy that is new every morning. You are so faithful to me! I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Bonus Prayer Reminder
Tomorrow, Thursday May 7th is National Day of Prayer. Please continue to pray for our church, leaders, family, media, COVID-19, and all of America, as we join together as one and pray. Join our Oak Pointe Church Family and pray with all of us from 7:00-9:00pm . Click the link here or go to Oak Pointe Church’s website and click on National Day of Prayer. See you all on Thursday as we spend the day in prayer!