Thursday 13 July - Confession Brings Us Closer to God Than Complaining

Reading: Nehemiah 9:1-4.

When things are going wrong in your life, what do you do? Do you complain that it’s everyone else’s fault or that events are conspiring against you? Or do you confess your part in what is going wrong?

Complaining comes from a sense of pride; confession comes from a sense of humility. God responds to those who confess their sins and their failures with a sense of humility.

Having listened to the Book of the Law and realised just how far they were from God’s standards for their lives as God’s people, Nehemiah and the Israelites humbly confessed their sins. The decisions to fast and wear burlap and dust on their foreheads were all signs of their desire to be humble before God in their confessions. God responded with forgiveness, mercy and grace.

Unconfessed sin creates distance between God and us. A prideful attitude that leads to complaining about others or our circumstances simply deepens that distance. Only humble confession allows our holy God to bridge that gap and to answer our prayers as we agree with him about our sin.

God will never reject a broken, repentant, and humble heart. Give him yours today.

Think It Over

Think about the following:

Why do we struggle to be honest and humble about our sin when we know God already knows all about it?