Key scripture- “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed (James 5:16, ESV).

Pastor, James McDonald asks: How’s your prayer life been this week? How many breakthroughs are you experiencing with the items on your list? How much light is God starting to shed on certain areas that perhaps have been unclear to you for a long time? Even in those places where things seem to be getting worse instead of better—where Satan is tightening his grip and not easily letting go—how encouraged have you been by God’s ability to keep you persistent in prayer, refusing to give up, passionately pursuing an ever-deeper, ever-growing relationship with Him?

A fired-up prayer life is such an awesome adventure. But you won’t have that when sin is causing a blockage to the answers you seek. Not when pride, stubbornness, or laziness is clogging your connection with God, turning prayer into a shallow, lifeless experience that makes you want to avoid it instead of lean in to it.

The Bible says this is one reason to regularly “confess your sins.” In fact, it’s why we need to break the familiar pattern of prayer we’ve always known as ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication) and switch it to CATS . . . because confession should come first—even before praise and adoration. God says to those who approach Him with unclean hands and impure hearts, “Who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings” (Isaiah 1:12–13). Bring instead a humble heart that is quick to say,
“I sinned.”
“I have no excuse.”
“Nothing that anyone else did in any way justifies my sin.”
“I’m wrong. I’m sorry for _______ [name your sin].”
“Please forgive me.”

Those aren’t easy words to say, much less to mean. But they are truly powerful, and they’re able to ignite your prayer life from barely a flicker to a blazing flame.

Yet in addition to confessing your sins to God, Scripture says to “confess your sins to one another.”Throughout church history, a misreading of this statement from James 5:16 has led to some false doctrine, whereby many have been taught that confessing their sins into another’s ear is a necessary means of receiving forgiveness. It’s not. Forgiveness comes from God alone.

But when you “confess your sins to one another,” you do receive assurance of forgiveness. All those places where you struggle to stay pure, where your heart has grown hard and insensitive, where you doubt God’s ability to ever forgive the grievous, hidden trespasses you’ve committed—despite all that, you can be restored to tenderness and faith as you confess your sins to one another and receive the encouragement that, yes, God loves you. Yes, God is good. And, yes, God forgives.

A thousand things can conspire to come between you and a vibrant, victorious, totally open and expectant relationship with God through prayer. Commit today that unconfessed sin will no longer be one of them.

Confess your sins immediately to God, and “confess your sins to one another.”

Pray this – Our Precious Heavenly Father, I confess my specific sins to You right now as I kneel before You and I honestly admit: “I’ve sinned; I have no excuse; nothing that anyone else did in any way justifies what I have done; I’m wrong; I’m sorry for _________; please forgive me.” O God, thank You for hearing the genuineness of my heart. I stand firm as I am fully assured that You have truly forgiven all my sins through the death of Jesus, because everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His Name. (Acts 10:43). I believe in Jesus, therefore, all my sins are forgiven and I am set free from every sin. It’s in His Mighty Name, I pray, Amen.

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