Prayer Issues: Confession

Psalm 70:1-5, "Make haste, O God, to deliver me; make haste to help me, O LORD. Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul: let them be turned backward, and put to confusion, that desire my hurt. Let them be turned back for a reward of their shame that say, Aha, aha. Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: and let such as love thy salvation say continually, Let God be magnified. But I am poor and needy: make haste unto me, O God: thou art my help and my deliverer; O LORD, make no tarrying."

An apprentice is a person who learns from a "master" in a specific trade, such as a cobbler, carpenter, blacksmith, and so on.

Most of us would admit that we have some very specific needs, urgent needs, and in some cases very desperate needs. It would do each of us well to get under some great "masters" of prayer, such as David, Elijah, Daniel, or Apostle Paul. Men who knew how to pray and had great prayers answered.

Some time ago, a fellow church member and I were out making visits. We encountered a man, and I asked him if he was certain that his sins were forgiven and that he would go to Heaven when he died. He admitted he wasn't sure and certainly didn't want to end up in Hell. I offered to show him from the Bible how he could be assured of his sins being forgiven and of going to Heaven instead of Hell when he died. Without hesitation, he replied, "NO!" This man needs someone who knows how to get ahold of God in prayer and plead for his eyes to be opened to his dire future and for his heart to be willing to trust Jesus Christ as his personal Savior.

As believers, we must learn to pray in such a was that God will hear and answer our prayers. King David was a "master" of prayer. He saw God do great and mighty things in answer to his prayers. We can learn from David's prayers. When we learn to pray as David did, we can see God do great and mighty things for us also.

David understood the necessity of confession of the sinfulness of his sins in order to have his prayers answered.

Psalm 70:5, "...I am poor and needy..."

1. No one is ever saved from sin and Hell without first confessing their sinful condition. Mark 2:17, "When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." God will not save those who deny being sinners or who refuse to acknowledge the presence of sin in their heart and life. I must acknowledge and confess my sin before I can call on the Savior of sin! The modern preacher who will not preach on sin is doing his people and his community a great disservice.
   

2. No one ever gets their prayers answered who does not first confess their sin. Psalm 66:18, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:" Hebrews 12:1-2, "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." We cannot look to Jesus in prayer without first "laying aside" our sin. This means to confess and forsake our sin. Proverbs 28:13, "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy."

   
   

   To "confess" my sin means to agree with God as to how sinful my sin actually; to see my sin as God sees it; to judge my sin in same way and to the same degree that God judges my sin. When I confess my sin, I am not giving God any information that He does not already have, but rather it is to take the same attitude toward my sin that God takes. We may be able to hide our sin from our spouse, parent, friends, or preacher, but we can never hide our sin from God. 1 Chronicles 28:9, "...for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts:..." Psalm 11:4, "The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD'S throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men." Psalm 44:21, "Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart." Proverbs 5:21, "For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings." Proverbs 15:3, "The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good." Jeremiah 16:17, "For mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes." Hebrews 4:13, "Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." Our young people are in the "cross hairs" of the Devil's guns and need parents and a church that will come clean with God and get through to God in prayer. Many people say that they want a preacher who "tells it straight!" We'll God wants us to be "straight" with Him.
   

3. We must confess our sins to not only be saved, but to have power with God in prayer. 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." We need to confess our sin! We need to forsake our sin! And then we need to forget our sin!
   

Whenever I reach the point where being right with God is more important to me than any selfish pleasure or gain from my sin, God will do great and mighty things in response to my prayers.

Jeremiah 33:3, "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not."