In today's world, we thrive on the image of perfection. We want our lives, our bodies, and our bank accounts to be perfect. We want our lives to have the image of having the great boyfriend/girlfriend, our super attractive bodies catch all the attention, and to have our bank accounts overflowing with money.
But that's not how it works. Every single one of us has something that we're hiding. Whether it be the acne on our faces hidden by makeup or a terrible truth we pray no one discovers. God tells us in Proverbs 28:13 that "He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, But he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion." This scripture is telling us that if we hide our secret sins, we won't get the close-to-perfect life we want, we will get the opposite. But if we confess them to God, He will give us hope, and we will prosper.
I know that you are most likely referring to eternity; however, I hope you realize that this life is not the end goal. In fact as Christians, this world is guaranteed to suck. The world has a very different view of a close-to-perfect life which is entirely subjective to the individual. Also we don't trade confession for hope when it comes to God. We're saved by grace through faith, not our confession. While confession is a very good habit to make in the sanctification process, our salvation does not ride on it. I'd use the word "repentance", because that involves confession and a plead for forgiveness, which is absolutely necessary in our salvation. I assume you knew all of this, I just felt the need to clarify.
ReplyDeleteMany people don't fully understand repentance and they ask for forgiveness for their sin but don't turn away from it. This is another reason people like to keep their sin in the dark because if someone knew of their sin then they would expect them be ready to give up that sin. As Christians this life isn't suppose to be easy we are called to suffer for the sake of the cross. In Philippians Paul said "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain". Christ was with out sin and although we can not be perfect we are suppose to strive to be as Christ like as possible and sin is not Christ like. We face many worldly temptations and many of the things that the world thinks make a perfect life mean nothing in light of eternity. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 says "for though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ." When the world pushes these desires in our faces God tells us to stay strong and take every thought captive! Repentance is a Big part of this because sometimes we fail but we are able to turn away from our sin and putting it out in the open helps keep us accountable.
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