APR 20
Matthew 6:9-13
Memorise Matthew 6:12
“And forgive us our debts...”

To confess our sins is to ask God for forgiveness. Since the day the Lord opened our spiritual eyes to see that we are sinners, we have realised that our sins are so many. We sin so easily. We lie. We are unkind. We are selfish. We are self-willed. We are unforgiving. The list goes on and on. After we have sinned, do we feel sorry for those whom we hurt and do we realize that we have not been a good testimony for the Lord? Do you desire to confess your sins? Or do you prefer to go on sinning?

Notice that we begin by asking God to forgive us of our sins. Our sins are our debts, debts we owe our heavenly Father. We have no means of paying those debts, except that He has mercy on us and cancels them. He so loved us that He sent His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ to suffer and to die on the cross of Calvary. By this merit, God forgives us and cancels our debts when we put our trust in Jesus. If we plead with God to forgive us, we must also be willing to forgive others. For, by comparison, our debts to God are greater than any man’s debts to us.

When we are unforgiving, we harbour many hostile feelings of anger and hatred. This is a great burden upon our hearts. The hurt begins to fester and harden our hearts. This also becomes a barrier and hindrance to our spiritual walk with the Lord. Our prayer life is affected as God will not hear us when we pray because our sins separate us from Him (Psalm 66:18).

It is a good rule for your spiritual life to confess your sins as soon as you realise it. Get rid of that poison in your heart and in your life. God has promised in 1 John 1:9 that He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. The longer our sins remain unconfessed, the worse off we become. We carry the weight of that sin wherever we go. This leads to bitterness and can even lead to physical sickness and emotional trauma. We end up harming ourselves much more in the end.

Thought: Obedience to our Lord brings peace into our hearts.
Prayer: Search me, O Lord, and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me to confess my sins.