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Most people seek inclusion into the kingdom of God. Many are inclined to approach God in their own terms – as if they actually could. There is no Biblical evidence that anyone is allowed to determine the methods or principles by which we have a relationship with God, except God Himself. (John 14:6) One of the foundational elements of an avenue of approach to God is confession.

Confession as a Biblical/Christian practice has been diluted and obscured by those who seek to impose some human doctrine on the exercise. It has been ritualized out of effectiveness by those who seek to establish worldly efforts in place of the righteous. Literally, it is the effort of verbally acknowledging the authority of God. It is to pronounce that, “It is our firmest belief that Jesus Christ is Lord and we are NOT!” Each individual was called to make this exclamation initially and for the rest of our life.

Ingrained in the oldest expectations of God’s faithful, we find in Isaiah 45:23, “I have sworn by Myself, The Word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness and will not turn back, that to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance.” Confession is in part an establishment of our loyalties. It is also entirely unavoidable on any permanent level. We may choose to ignore God, but be sure the day is coming when we won’t! We are allied to someone or something in this world, (Matthew 6:24) the question is to what or whom are we bonded? God requires His own people be open about their faith, regardless of the personal cost. As a result, Jesus promises, “”Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. (33) “But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.” To remember God before man is to adhere to that most sacred bond. Because of the possible earthly cost, Jesus gave a very valuable eternal promise.

Confession actually has current, as well as, future benefits. In the present, for me to confess Christ, and possibly the acknowledgement of my own sin, I can find several beneficial results. The first is that I allow God to have the place He deserves. When we put God first, we have voluntarily stepped back from our own pride and selfishness. The beginning of all sin for man is selfishness. We can never allow our own sense of self – preservation to overcome our obligation to be a follower of Christ and thus sin. Next, confession relieves us of the energy required to try to hide our sin, as if we could. When we spend energy trying to portray ourselves as something we are NOT, we waste precious resources attempting to perpetrate a lie. Third, confession brings us peace. When we are engaged in the practice of avoiding the announcement of our own sin, we are paying the cost of the anxiety that comes with that avoidance. Tell the truth and you know what that does! Acceptance of the truth grants the reward of freedom. (John 8:32) Fourth, in confession we find the beginning to our spiritual rehabilitation. We can begin to heal only after we accept ourselves in the spiritual condition we are truly in and allow God to be where He is supposed to be in our lives.

Confession is a blessing, but that doesn’t make it an easy exercise. It can be hard to face how far we have fallen. We can only begin the journey of spiritual healing when we look up to the Father and call on the blood of Jesus to save us. This is all clearly taught in the Gospel of Christ. It can even be seen as overly simple, but still the difficulty is present. Realizing how badly Satan has led us, and how far we have willingly travelled with him we must state where our true loyalties lie. To call out that we believe that Jesus is Lord is to claim a side in the spiritual battle we call life. Just remember that the battle is won, we have but to choose which side we want to be judged from. It’s like choosing the team to support after the game is played. An amazing dynamic, but it is the one we have. Choose wisely. God is always Good. His people will always win. Godspeed on your journey…