The one who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.

Proverbs 28:13 HCSB

I look back at a time in my life when I had sin that I tried to keep hidden. I would attend my obligatory church services once or twice a month. While I was there the devil would try to distract me from listening to the sermon and point out how guilty I was and how useless it was for me to even be there. God would convict me of my sin and have me wanting to repent. Then I would leave church and the devil would win. I would live as I pleased and then two or three weeks later,  I would return to church and we would do it all over again.

I’ve told you many times that I always thought that I could justify my sin, but I was wrong. The funny thing was I thought I could hide my sin from my Christian family and friends, but you can’t hide sin from God. He knows all, He sees all, He’s everywhere at one time, how can you possibly hide sin from Him? You can’t.

Our scripture passage today tells us that those who try to hide sin will not prosper. Now right now some of you are shaking your head and thinking there is no way you are going public with your hidden sin. Well, rest easy, this is not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about owning it and confessing it to God. Many years ago, my former pastor did a sermon about confessing our sin to God. He told the congregation that we needed to confess our sin to God. He said that we didn’t necessarily need to tell all to the pastor as it was really none of his business, but we did need to confess all to God.

When we do this, we are telling someone who already knows. We are simply coming clean in the truest sense of the word. Once we confess our sins, Jesus blood washes us white as now. When we confess our sins to Him and repent and ask Him to fill our heart with His Holy Spirit to help us to no longer sin, he removes our sin from us and we can fight the devil using God’s strength.

Romans 3:23 tells us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. None of us can say that we have never sinned.  We are told in 1 John 1:9, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. God not only forgives our sin and cleanses us from all unrighteousness, but He removes our sin as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12).

If you have sin in your life that you really want to be rid of the first step is acknowledging that it is sin. You have to own it. You don’t have to shout it out to the world, but you have to admit to God that you are a sinner. You have to believe that God can cleanse you from this sin. You have to confess it to him. Once we do that and repent, He will cleanse us. He will remove our sin from us and we can be free from the bondage of that sin.

If your sin is weighing on you like shackles on your feet, admit to it, own it and confess and repent. Trust in God to cleanse you and remove this sin from you. What are you waiting for? Take a load off.

Have a great day!