Honest to God

I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah. (Psalm 32:5) 
 
My three-year-old grandson’s day was off to a rotten start. He couldn’t find his favorite shirt. The shoes he wanted to wear were too hot. He fussed and fumed at his grandmother and then sat down to cry. 
 
“Why are you so upset?” I asked. We talked for a while and after he calmed down, I gently inquired, “Have you been good for Grandma?” He looked thoughtfully at his shoes and responded, “No, I was bad. I’m sorry.” 
 
My heart went out to him. Instead of denying what he had done, he was honest. In the following moments we asked Jesus to forgive us when we do wrong and to help us do better. 
 
In Isaiah 1, God confronts His people about wrongs they’d committed. Bribes and injustice were rampant in the courts, and orphans and widows were taken advantage of for material gain. Yet even then God responded mercifully, asking the people of Judah to confess what they’d done and turn from it: “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18). 
 
God longs for us to be open with Him about our sins. He meets honesty and repentance with loving forgiveness: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Because our God is merciful, new beginnings await! 
 
What sins have you not been honest with God about? What’s holding you back from confessing them to Him? 
 
Abba, Father, help me to turn away from the sin in my life and make a new beginning with You today. Amen.  
 
When I read this devotion it blessed me. My prayer is when we confess our sin as today’s devotion encourages that we also remember God erases the sin and the guilt. We need to forget it and get on with our life. God doesn’t remember any confessed sin so why should we. You have no need to ask for repeated forgiveness. It had been forgiven the first time you asked. Every time we cry anew for release from our guilt, we are denying the effectiveness of Christ’s death. How dare we demean forgiveness bought at so great a price. As today’s devotion says, turn from the sin and make a new beginning with Him. 
 
Have a beautiful and uplifting day in The Lord! 
 
Today’s Reading is Psalms 113:3