This is an excerpt from Dynamic of Service by Paget Wilkes.
Confession involves self-judgment. It is much easier to ask for pardon in a general way than to confess our sins in all their naked shame. If a child has done wrong, it is much less difficult to ask to be forgiven than openly and ingenuously to confess the wrong.
I came across an instance of this while on my recent furlough. I had been taking a series of meetings on Scriptural holiness. At the close, a lady came to me saying that one sentence I had spoken had set her soul at liberty from a bondage of some years’ standing. On my making inquiry as to what it might be, she replied, “You said if God has been convicting you and revealing your inward sin and need, whatever you do, don’t cry for deliverance! I was so astonished at this amazing statement that I looked up, wondering whatever you would say next, when you proceeded thus: The Word of God does not say, ‘If we cry for deliverance, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness,’ but it does say, ‘If we confess our sins.’ I saw at once the difference and my mistake. I hastened home to my room, and getting down before God, told Him that, though I had long been crying for deliverance, it had never come. From that hour, I ceased my cry, and instead poured out my heart in honest confession of my sin. That very night, the Lord fulfilled His promise and set me free.”
Confession involves self-judgment. It is much easier to ask for pardon in a general way than to confess our sins in all their naked shame. If a child has done wrong, it is much less difficult to ask to be forgiven than openly and ingenuously to confess the wrong.
I came across an instance of this while on my recent furlough. I had been taking a series of meetings on Scriptural holiness. At the close, a lady came to me saying that one sentence I had spoken had set her soul at liberty from a bondage of some years’ standing. On my making inquiry as to what it might be, she replied, “You said if God has been convicting you and revealing your inward sin and need, whatever you do, don’t cry for deliverance! I was so astonished at this amazing statement that I looked up, wondering whatever you would say next, when you proceeded thus: The Word of God does not say, ‘If we cry for deliverance, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness,’ but it does say, ‘If we confess our sins.’ I saw at once the difference and my mistake. I hastened home to my room, and getting down before God, told Him that, though I had long been crying for deliverance, it had never come. From that hour, I ceased my cry, and instead poured out my heart in honest confession of my sin. That very night, the Lord fulfilled His promise and set me free.”
Comments