50 Days of Prayer – Day 39
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“But if we confess our sins to Him, He can be depended on to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong. [And it is perfectly proper for God to do this for us because Christ died to wash away our sins.]” 1 John 1:9 (TLB)
Lent is a season of personal reflection and preparation for the celebration of Easter. It involves our own need for confession and repentance in prayer as we remember the sacrifice of our Savior for our sins. The word for “confess” in 1 John 1:9 is “homologeo” which derives from two Greek words meaning “to speak the same” or “to agree with God.” When we confess something, we are standing in agreement, we are saying the same thing God says. When we confess our sins, we are agreeing with God in the admission of our failure, as well as in the acceptance of His grace to forgive us when we repent of our sin. In this way, the word confession can be used in both a negative sense, confessing our sins, as well as in the positive acceptance of our forgiveness!
The Greek word for “forgiven” is “aphiemi.” It’s the same word used in 1 John 1:9 where the Bible says, “But if we confess our sins to Him, He can be depended on to forgive us. …”
“Aphiemi” (forgive) means “to let go, to release or to send away from oneself, to be released from a debt.” When we agree with God about our sin and confess it to Him, we are forgiven! Our sin is put away! But how does God do that? I love the way the Living Bible paraphrases the 1 John 1:9 when it says, “… [And it is perfectly proper for God to do this for us because Christ died to wash away our sins.]” 1 John 1:9c (TLB)
First, Jesus paid the sin debt that we all owe. His death on the cross satisfied the judgment of God against sin so that sin can no longer be held against one who trusts Jesus as their Savior and has turned from that sin to Christ. Secondly, the crippling guilt caused by sin is removed and replaced by the righteousness of Christ. That’s ultimate forgiveness! You are so forgiven in Christ that, in God’s eyes, it is as if you had never sinned!
If the burden of your sins has paralyzed you and frozen your heart with guilt and shame, claim the promise of forgiveness in 1 John 1:9. Confess your sins to Christ. Admit it and agree with God that it was wrong. Then, receive aphiemi – Let It Go! He will take your sins and cast them to the bottom of the sea! Experience ultimate forgiveness! You can release that sin to the Savior who nailed it to the cross! Take comfort in the grace that “He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.” Psalm 103:12 (NLT)