As we considered yesterday, praying for forgiveness happens in the context of confessing our failures – both things we know and things we don’t, both actions and attitudes. Such confession is an important part of the Christian life. It reminds us of our sinful propensity, and dependance on God. However, confession can’t happen properly without the confidence of our forgiveness. Unless we are confident of our forgiveness confession only acknowledges our guilt; and if we don't have a way of dealing with our guilt we will be destroyed by it. So genuine, deep confession can only occur in proportion to our confidence in our forgiveness.
David Brainerd was a passionate missionary to the American Indians – he gave his life in an attempt to reach them. However, as one author reflects when introducing Brainard's diaries,
David Brainerd was a passionate missionary to the American Indians – he gave his life in an attempt to reach them. However, as one author reflects when introducing Brainard's diaries,
“…he carried the wholesome habit of introspection and self-examination to an unwholesome extreme. He was continually thrusting the surgeon’s knife into the imaginations and purposes and affections of his heart, and continually discovering something poisonous and diseased and deadly. He should…have looked in less and looked out more – out to Jesus Christ, who is made unto us Sanctification as well as Righteousness.”
As the life of David Brainard suggests, confession itself can become destructive. The only way we can rightly approach confession is through the cross of Jesus and the previous statements of the Lord's Prayer. As John Smed adds:
“…the only way we can shoulder the responsibility of confessing our sin is to have a clear view of the Fatherhood of God. ‘Our Father’ sets the relational context which permits a humble, courageous approach to God – faults and all. If we do not come to God as father, we will tend to approach him as a forbidding judge. We will walk away feeling obligated to suffer for our faults. We feel burdened to pay God back with good deeds.”
Deep confession, then, should remind us and lead us to complete and utter gratefulness because of God’s forgiveness in Jesus. Genuine confession should lead us to increased faith in Jesus.
QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF
- How does the Lord's Prayer drive us to confession?
- How does the Lord's Prayer give us confidence for confession? Where else might we find such confidence?
- In light of these thoughts, how are you led to pray, 'forgive my debts'?
You can find a copy of David Brainard's diary here. The reflection was from the introduction by Jonathan Edwards