Faithful to Forgive

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

John puts a condition at the front of this promise, and it is smaller than most people make it. He does not say we must grovel first, or promise it will never happen again. To confess simply means to say the true thing to God. And what answers us is not God's mood that day. It is two words about who He is. He is "faithful," because He gave His word and He keeps it. He is also "just," and that is the surprising one. You might expect God to forgive in spite of being just. John says He is just to forgive, because the debt has already been settled by Jesus on the cross. Then John goes past forgiving to cleansing. Cleansing reaches the thing underneath the sin you named. John wrote this to a church where some people were saying they had no sin at all, so he is calling them to be honest.

A prayer might sound like this: Lord, I have prayed the general version for years. I have said, "Forgive my sins," meaning all of them, and none of them in particular. Tonight I am naming the one I have been walking around. You already know it; I am the one who has not said it. I am not going to promise You anything first. You said You are faithful and just, and I am holding You to both words.

There is a warning in this too. For many of us, the danger is not that we will confess too little. It is that we keep asking for what God has already given, and call the asking humility. After a point, asking again is a polite way of telling God that His promise did not hold. So once you have confessed, believe Him. He said He would forgive and cleanse you, and He has.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 282 is The Simplicity in Christ (2 Corinthians 11:3).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna