Daily Devotionals

Pressure Point Week 2: Friday

But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 1 John 1:9

Some people minimize sin when they are tempted. These people see it as not a big deal at all. They don't feel guilty for sin and keep sinning because it is not a big deal to them. Others maximize their sin. These people think their temptations and sins are so grand and significant that they struggle to accept God's grace and truly live like they have been forgiven. Taking on this attitude is no way to live either. You see, as big and grand as sin is, God's love is even greater and bigger. When we live in His love and forgiveness, we experience His freedom.

Paul teaches us about God's grace and forgiveness when we turn to Him in 1 John 1. He explains in this chapter that "if we confess our sins to him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness." This is good news. Sin is powerful. It has caused destruction and devastation in every area of our lives. It is not more powerful than God and His love. That is why if we confess our sins to God, we have the promise that He is faithful. This means He will forgive us and cleanse us from our sins when we come to him and apologize and turn away from our sins. In doing this, God renders sin powerless over us. This is the best news we could ever receive 

Apologizing and turning away from your sin requires humility. It requires that we admit our faults and wrongdoings. It causes us to shine a light on our imperfections. Humbling ourselves in such a way that we acknowledge and admit sin, and apologize for it, is not easy, but it is so important. You see, humility leads to forgiveness and cleansing. It leads to the restoration of our relationship with God. If you find yourself struggling with sin today, confess it to God. Turn to Him. Say, "I'm sorry," and ask Him for forgiveness and to help you live differently.

Moving toward action

Write down the verses listed in the Going Deeper section below. As you write out each word of these verses, focus on God's love and forgiveness. Focus on the freedom He offers in Christ and thank Him for it! Our sin was great, but as one of my favorite worship songs reminds us, "His love was greater!"

Going Deeper

1 John 1:1-10

"We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. 2 This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.

5 This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. 6 So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. 7 But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts."