“And he said: I fear lest I have committed the unpardonable sin, for I have lied unto God; for I denied the Christ, and said that I believed the scriptures; and they truly testify of him. And because I have thus lied unto God I greatly fear lest my case shall be awful; but I confess unto God.”
Jacob 7:19
Confession is an interesting component of repentance. God already knows what we did, right? So maybe confession to a person that we wronged makes sense, but why God? I think this verse might have the core of the answer—it’s about honesty.
Mark Twain famously had one of his main characters state “you can’t pray a lie,” which is a reflection of the very nature of God and of our relationship with him. Deception is the antithesis of all that he is. On some level, if we’re trying to deceive God we’re also deceiving ourselves into thinking that’s even possible. Confession isn’t about giving God new information. It is about facing up to our failures, figuring out how to change, and then committing to it. Doing that in front of God and other people helps us both face it and have other people who will hold us responsible for that change.
Today, let’s be honest with ourselves and with God. If there is something that we need to change in our lives, let’s step up and commit to it. Let’s stop trying to live or pray a lie, and be our true selves... because no matter how bad those selves are, we’re never going to improve until we face the truth.
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