Disciple's Prayer Life

Agreeing With God

Genesis 5:22 HCSB

And after the birth of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and fathered other sons and daughters.

Genesis 6:8 HCSB

Noah, however, found favor in the sight of the Lord.

James 2:23 HCSB

So the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness, and he was called God’s friend.

Amos 3:3 HCSB

Can two walk together without agreeing to meet?

When we hear the word ‘confession’ we almost always think of confessing sin.

The word, ‘confession’ as used by Old and New Testament writers is broader than simply acknowledging some sin.

The OT word often translated ‘confess’ is the same word often translated ‘praise.’

...verb and noun have two meanings: the more frequent and fixed in established forms is “to laud, praise, thank”; it also means “to confess (sins)” … . The concept that binds the two meanings could be rendered “to acknowledge” or “to confess”; we could speak of a “confession of praise.” Both meanings acknowledge either the delivering activity of God or one’s own trespasses, one’s own failures. When one confesses one’s own failure, one acknowledges God, against whom one has sinned … .

Ernst Jenni and Claus Westermann, Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1997), 503.

The primary NT word is

The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament I. ὁμολογεῖν.

1. ὁμολογεῖν == “to assure,” “to promise,” “to admit,” “to concede.”

T. W. Hunt, in Disciple’s Prayer Life, writes, “We are to agree with Him. This is the essence of the Christian life and of prayer itself - praying in agreement with God and living in agreement with God.” (Week 8, p. 111).

There are at least four types of confession described in God’s Word:

Confession of Sin

Psalm 51 includes four different words David used to ‘confess’ his sin with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband:

a). transgression/rebellion

In Hebrew this word simply means ‘crime.’ Crime in the OT was a broad category that covers all sorts of personal and property abuses.

b). iniquity/guilt

The basic nuance of this word is “sin” conceived as missing the road or mark

W. E. Vine, Merrill F. Unger, and William White Jr., Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words (Nashville, TN: T. Nelson, 1996), 232.

c). sin

Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words (Sin)

which means “to be bent, bowed down, twisted, perverted” or “to twist, pervert.”

d). evil/wickedness

bad, disagreeable, malignant:

Francis Brown, Samuel Rolles Driver, and Charles Augustus Briggs, Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977), 948.]

Obviously David sensed the gravity of his action -

“Against You—You alone—I have sinned and done this evil in Your sight. So You are right when You pass sentence; You are blameless when You judge.” (Psalm 51:4, HCSB)

Of course the NT writers speak of sin:

The principal NT term is hamartia (and cognates), which is equivalent to ḥṭ’. In classical Gk. it is used for missing a target or taking a wrong road. It is the general NT term for sin as concrete wrongdoing, the violation of God’s law (Jn. 8:46; Jas. 1:15; 1 Jn. 1:8).

B. A. Milne with J.M., “Sin,” in New Bible Dictionary, ed. D. R. W. Wood et al. (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), 1105.

To ‘confess’ sin is to admit before God that you have personally failed, that you have disobeyed, that you have acted in a way that is opposite of God’s express will.

As we confess sin 1 John 1:9 is crucial:

1 John 1:9 HCSB

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Confessing Our Needs

Luke 4:18 HCSB

The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed,

Jesus’ ministry has multiple examples of individuals coming to Him expressing specific needs.

As we pray we can ‘confess; our own needs.

We can also ‘confess’ the needs of others - those who are captive, those who are blind (spiritually and physically), and those who are oppressed - by any number of challenges.

Confess Jesus as Lord and Savior

We used to invite people to ‘ask Jesus into their hearts.’ While we meant well, the Bible never uses that terminology.

Matthew 10:32–33 HCSB

“Therefore, everyone who will acknowledge Me before men, I will also acknowledge him before My Father in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father in heaven.

The word translated ‘acknowledge’ is the Greek word ‘ὁμολογέω’ which means ‘ to say the same thing as;’ reminding us that Jesus confesses us as His ONLY as we confess Him as ours!

Later, John will explain:

1 John 4:15 HCSB

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God.

Confessing Your New Nature

Two passages from God’s Word”

Romans 6:4 HCSB

Therefore we were buried with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in a new way of life.

2 Corinthians 5:17 HCSB

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come.