This is the one-hundred-eighty-second lesson in author and pastor Mel Lawrenz’ How to Live the Bible series. If you know someone or a group who would like to follow along on this journey through Scripture, they can get more info and sign up to receive these essays via email here.

“Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not account against him and in whose spirit is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long… Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord’—and you forgave the guilt of my sin.” Psalm 32:1-5

Have you ever kept a secret of some dark, embarrassing thing because you knew that if it ever came to light, people would look at you entirely different? You don’t want to confess it to another person—and maybe you don’t need to—but you can’t even imagine confessing it to God. And you know that’s a mistake.

Know that you’re not alone. Those who follow God as closely as can be, such as King David who wrote this Psalm, are still sinners who remember transgressions of the distant past and recent past. David says that when he keeps these things to himself, when he pretends he’s perfect and doesn’t even confess them to God, then the emptiness inside him becomes a rot—his bones go soft and brittle.

That’s what unconfessed sin does. It eats away at us like a savage disease. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

There comes a point when a person says: “No, this is not right, and this is not healthy. I’m going to come clean (and doesn’t even that sound wonderful?) and acknowledge to God things he already knows, but I’ve never admitted to. But what will happen then? Will God reject me? Will God cast me out of his presence? What will my punishment be?”

David said that when he decided to end the covering up, to let his whole life come under the brilliant light of God’s truth and righteousness, something wonderful happened: “You forgave the guilt of my sin.”

What does forgiveness mean? The biblical word means simply “to release.” God has said that, if we open our eyes and admit our need, he stands ready to release us. History cannot be changed, but God can change the future.

APPLICATION

Today is as good a time as any to take at least 20 or 30 minutes—in a private room or on a walk—and confess to God the sins of the past. Take the cover off. Talk to God.

[See previous – Mastered by Righteousness]
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Mel Lawrenz (@MelLawrenz) trains an international network of Christian leaders, ministry pioneers, and thought-leaders. He served as senior pastor of Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, Wisconsin, for ten years and now serves as Elmbrook’s teaching pastor. He has a PhD in the history of Christian thought and is on the adjunct faculty of Trinity International University. Mel’s many books include Spiritual Leadership Today: Having Deep Influence in Every Walk of Life (Zondervan, 2016). See more of Mel’s writing at WordWay.