Facedown Confession

"...And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.
This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all...
But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son cleanses us from all sin...
But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness..." 
(1 John 1:3-5, 7, 9)
  
My first thought after reading 1 John 1 was, "I don't confess enough." When I was in Catholic school, I confessed twice a year, once during Advent and once during Lent. They set up two chairs facing each other in the front of the church, and as we waited in the front pews (where you could almost hear what was being said by the sinner if you listened carefully), we'd take turns sitting in front of the priest to name our sins one by one. After that, he would tell us to pray the Lord's prayer or 2 Hail Mary's or something. Then I would try to be a good person for as long as I could, but that would only last until I came home to my mom and smart-mouthed her. By now I know that I need a lot more confession than twice a year.


BUT God refocused me on WHO HE IS - LIGHT. THE WORD OF LIFE. ETERNAL LIFE. He is GOOD. PURE. TRUE. HOLY. RELIABLE. He knows we fail and don't always put him first, but He wants to have a deep companionship with us and live with an eternal perspective everyday. There is no space for sin when we walk side by side with Him. As we walk with him, we (believers aka Thomas folk) can have a deeper companionship with each other and be cleaned up of all the stains we accumulate from just being human. 


There was a time when I'd feel so ashamed to "walk in the light" after sinning or even after skipping too many devotions because I thought God was too disappointed in my repeated failures. I would continue to walk in spiritual darkness and give up trying to be a faithful follower. Actually it was easier and it felt like a lot less pressure to do my own thang. But God showed me his infinite grace so I wouldn't have to go on spiritually dead. He wanted me to return to Him, to walk in the light with Him again, and He did the job of cleaning me up after I confessed to Him.


Look at God's heart here in 1 Samuel 12:20-22:
"Don't be afraid," Samuel reassured them. "You have certainly done wrong, but make sure now that you worship the Lord with all your heart, and don't turn your back on him. Don't go back to worshipping worthless idols that are totally useless! The Lord will not abandon his people, because that would dishonor his great name. For it has pleased the Lord to make you his very own people."


God loves us and accepts us as his redeemed people. So we don't confess to gain his acceptance, but to remove the barrier in our fellowship with him, allowing us to maximally enjoy a deep, incomparable, amazing, life-giving relationship with Him that He enjoys as well. He WANTS to share His joy with us. Let's not let our inevitable faults and shortcomings stop us from walking in the light with Him. He can bring us out of our darkness, dryness, passiveness, and He can clean us spotless if we recognize OUR LACKING but more importantly HIS GREATNESS!!!!