{"id":86,"date":"2020-05-18T12:22:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-18T11:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thirteencreative.co.uk\/onelife25\/?p=86"},"modified":"2025-12-01T12:24:29","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T12:24:29","slug":"celebration-of-discipline-week-9-confession","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thirteencreative.co.uk\/onelife25\/celebration-of-discipline-week-9-confession","title":{"rendered":"Celebration of Discipline Week 9: Confession"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If we know that God forgives us, why do we need confession? Surely God just knows?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week\u2019s chapter, exploring the spiritual discipline of confession, is a heavy yet eye-opening journey into why confession is such an important part of the Christian life \u2013 especially for those looking to lead. It comes down to this: there is freedom<\/strong> in confession. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wonder if you can relate to me when I say that confession isn\u2019t a massive part of my life. It really isn\u2019t a big part of our world as a whole. Yes, we may be alright at saying sorry when we do something wrong or hurt someone else. We may even be good at praying and asking God for his forgiveness. However, I suspect not many of us are good at confessing every sin in our lives. Perhaps we are just too ashamed to share some things, even with ourselves, and so we suppress them and act like they aren\u2019t a reality or haven\u2019t even happened. This can snare us, damage us and ultimately restrict our relationship with God. The discipline of confession is a way of freeing ourselves from those things, small and large, and inviting Jesus to restore, heal and forgive us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I love about this chapter is that, although at first glance it can seem really scary, Richard Foster eases us in with some truths we need to know before we really grow in this discipline. The opening sentence is: \u2018At the heart of God is the desire to give and to forgive.\u2019 It\u2019s who God is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s so much part of him, that he created this grand cosmic scheme to help us be forgiven, ending in the death and resurrection of Jesus, where sin was beaten, and our slates wiped clean. That is what we are working with and where our hope should come from when it comes to this, quite honestly daunting, discipline. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foster identifies two types of confession: corporate confession, which involves you and another trusted person, and private confession, which is between you and God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Corporate confession<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Foster reminds us that we can often fall into a hole where we think that everyone else is super holy compared to us. In turn, this leads us to even more guilt about our sin and results in us hiding away, living a veiled life that inevitably is full of hypocrisy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The solution? We have to accept that we are a fellowship of sinners, who are all in this together, and who are all just as good or bad as one another. This puts us on a level playing field, and (ideally) leaves us no room for judgement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then we each need to find someone we trust, who we know isn\u2019t going to judge us, who\u2019s a good listener, and who follows Jesus. Ask them to sit down with you and start learning this discipline. If you are struggling to think of anything, or if you are struggling to say anything, Foster suggest two exercises:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Spend some time beforehand, maybe across a few days, picking different stages of your life and spending just 10 minutes in silence asking God to reveal things from that stage of life. Write down whatever comes into your head, no matter how crazy it is. Then after you\u2019ve gone through each stage, meet with the friend and read it to them, confessing.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. If you\u2019re struggling to actually share, get your friend to ask you questions. If even this isn\u2019t working then go to \u2018Yes\u2019 or \u2018No\u2019 questions, where you simply have to nod or shake your head. Eventually this should lead somewhere.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Right now, the thought of this might seem really uncomfortable, and it likely will be. But the end goal is that we gain freedom \u2013 a freedom only found in the realigning ourselves with God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Private confession<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    The second type of confession, private confession, seems a lot easier. It\u2019s about regularly spending time with God just simply confessing your sins and asking for forgiveness, just him and you. Simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If you\u2019re like me, this seems like the much less daunting option, but really we need to do both. Although, as Foster says, \u2018It is a wonderful truth that the individual can break through into new life in the cross without the aid of any human mediator.\u2019 Private confession is great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    To conclude, here are the four things that the Foster lays out as the fundamentals of confession:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Be specific<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    Confession is all about being as specific as possible. It\u2019s easy to say, \u2018God, please forgive me because I was bad today,\u2019 rather than, \u2018God, today I hurt \u2026 and I was also thinking horrible things about \u2026 when they annoyed me. I also struggled with \u2026. today. Lord please forgive me and help me to grow into being more and more like you.\u2019 People came to Jesus with obvious sins and then were forgiven and healed, so we should too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Be sorrowful<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    This doesn\u2019t mean wallowing in our sin. This doesn\u2019t mean letting our sins control us and eat us up. It\u2019s just about having a healthy amount of regret, and a regret of having \u2018offended the heart of the Father.\u2019 Really it\u2019s just about being sorry that you strayed from the father\u2019s heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Have a determination to avoid sin<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    The whole point of confession is the free us from our past sin and give us a yearning for a holy life, that means having a determination to avoid sin. This means really trying to live a life in which we avoid sin as much as we can. However, we must know this is done in God\u2019s strength, not ours alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    End in joy<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    The whole process is done for the sake of living a life full of joy, aligned with the Father. When we\u2019ve done this well there is almost inevitably joy at the end of it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So, now we know what confession is all about, let\u2019s have a go! Here are a few ways we can get started\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    1. Text or ring a friend who you trust and ask them to engage in this with you. Take some time before you speak to reflect and pray, asking God to reveal things to you and then share and feel the freedom<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    2. Spend some time alone, write those things you may be feeling guilty about down. Pray over it. Then tear the piece of paper up into as many pieces as possible. This is a physical act of that sin being taken away.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    3. Spend some time praying. Being in God\u2019s presence and take that first step in sharing with him your sin and asking for forgiveness.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      Richard Foster recommends these daily scripture readings as explore confession this week:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Monday:<\/strong> The need for confession and forgiveness<\/em> \u2013 Isaiah 59:1\u20139, Romans 3:10\u201318<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Tuesday:<\/strong> The promise of forgiveness<\/em> \u2013 Jeremiah 31:34, Matthew 26:28, Ephesians 1:7<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Wednesday:<\/strong> The assurance of forgiveness<\/em> \u2013 1 John 1:5\u201310<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Thursday:<\/strong> Jesus Christ our adequate Saviour, Mediator and Advocate<\/em> \u2013 2 Corinthians 6:21, 1 Timothy 2:5, 1 John 2:1<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Friday:<\/strong> A parable of confession <\/em>\u2013 Luke 15:11\u201324<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Saturday: <\/strong>Authority and forgiveness \u2013 <\/em>Matthew 16:19, Matthew 18:18, John 20:23<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Sunday<\/strong>:\u00a0The ministry of the Christian fellowship<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 James 5:13\u201316<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Read about the discipline of Confession, from our series unpacking the Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":87,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thirteencreative.co.uk\/onelife25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thirteencreative.co.uk\/onelife25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thirteencreative.co.uk\/onelife25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thirteencreative.co.uk\/onelife25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thirteencreative.co.uk\/onelife25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thirteencreative.co.uk\/onelife25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88,"href":"https:\/\/thirteencreative.co.uk\/onelife25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions\/88"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thirteencreative.co.uk\/onelife25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thirteencreative.co.uk\/onelife25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thirteencreative.co.uk\/onelife25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thirteencreative.co.uk\/onelife25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}