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Chapter 4—Confession
“You will never succeed in life if you try to hide your sins.
Confess them and give them up; then God will show mercy to you.”
Proverbs 28:13
.
The rules for receiving the mercy of God are simple, fair, and
reasonable. The Lord does not ask us to do something hard and
painful so that our sins may be forgiven. We do not need to make
long, tiring journeys. We cannot pay for our sins by suffering.
Anyone who confesses his sins and turns away from them will
receive mercy.
The apostle James says, “Confess your faults one to another, and
pray for one another, that ye may be healed.”
James 5:16
, KJV. We
confess our sins to God, for only He can forgive them. We confess
our faults to one another. If we have offended a friend or neighbor,
we must admit the wrong, and it is his duty to forgive freely. Then
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we are to ask God to forgive us, because the neighbor belongs to
God. When we hurt him, we sin against his Creator and Redeemer.
We take the case to Jesus Christ, our great High Priest. “Our High
Priest is not one who cannot feel sympathy for our weaknesses....
We have a High Priest who was tempted in every way that we are,
but did not sin.”
Hebrews 4:15
. He is able to wash away every spot
of sin.
We must humble ourselves before God and admit that we have
sinned. This is the first rule for being accepted by God. If we have
not repented and humbled ourselves, confessing our sins, we have
not truly asked for forgiveness. If we do not hate our sins, we do not
truly want to be forgiven, and we do not find the peace of God.
If we have not been forgiven for our sins, the only reason is that
we are not willing to humble ourselves. We are not willing to follow
the rules set forth in the Bible. God has carefully told us what we
are to do. We must open our hearts and freely admit we have sinned.
We should not do this in a light or careless way. Nor should we be
forced to do it. We must realize how bad sin is, and hate it.
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