Prayer Confession

Matthew 6:12, 14-15 “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (KJV)

Our small group home Bible Study group has found this lesson on the elements of prayer to be a great blessing in our authentic personal relationship with our heavenly Father, in seeing the intent of drawing closer in heart and conversation with our Creator God. It made total sense that our prayer requests could not expect an answer when they aren’t in line with the will of God or if our motivations are selfish. God forbid, when we do not have our priorities or position right before God, we can egotistically vision the Lord from the prospective of a child on Santa’s lap or a Genie in a bottle that we rub to grant our wishes. In Luke 11:9-13 Jesus tells us to ask, seek & knock in prayer, because the Lord desires our conversation, for our benefit and growth in the “right” and “positive” direction – His path. To walk in the Spirit, with the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:16-26)

Hebrews 12:9-10 “Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.”

An equally important element that impacts the effectiveness of our prayers is the dealing with our Sin in relationship to forgiveness. We must always remember and never forget that the Father God’s purpose is not to punish His children, but to restore them when they fall back to an upright position before Him. Jesus makes this clear in John 3:16-17. We understand that when money is owed, there is a debt to pay it back. We also can understand that when someone has wronged us, which we feel that they owe us an apology and/or some restitution for the injury or offense. But do we translate that into the debt that each of us owe for the wrongs that we have committed, and continue to commit, against our just and holy God in our sin. How big of a debt do we owe? Romans 3:21-24 “But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Romans 6:22-23 “But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Our God of love offers salvation via redemption, forgiveness via repentance, justification via atonement, restoration via accepting the free gift, but starts with confession and profession. The Greek word “homologia” literally means “to say the same thing about our violations of God’s law and will as God says about them.” That sin is sin and that sin is “wrong”. In short it means admit we are wrong. All have sinned; all need forgiveness. In as much as God forgives us who sin against Him, He expects us to forgive those who sin against us. In the parabol of “the Unforgiving Servant” (in Matthew18:23-35), Jesus uses an illustration of the incredible debt that God forgives us, while we show no forgiveness to those who owe us so little in comparison. All of need to examine our hearts to check the alignment with the Lord’s, confess the marks that we miss, knock, seek, ask for forgiveness for our trespasses’, takes the steps to amend, correct and get harboring sin out of our heart. God said in Genesis 4:7 “You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.” God takes the issue of sin and forgiveness seriously. We come to our heavenly Father to pray on the basis of His forgiveness extended to us through Jesus. He wants our hearts to be “right” that He may bless us. Extending forgiveness to others frees our heart from the sin nature attached to unforgiveness. Confession in prayer is the key that unlocks the door to our heart.

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
In Christ, Brian