Day 65. I have chosen to live intentionally toward the goals, dreams and desires God has placed on my heart for the last 90 days of this year, pressing past fear, excuses and discomfort toward fullness of life as we countdown to 2020. Day 65: practicing confession (walking more closely with God).
I can’t hide things from her, that is the gift of true friendship. She listened to my mumbling, broken sentences, imperfect word choices and sat in my raw emotion. Somewhere mixed in my circuitous thoughts and discontentment was a hazy picture of what was really going on. She listened, graciously took it all in, and then, lovingly and firmly spoke unwavering truth, “You know what your problem is? You’re not walking in obedience.” BAM! Confession. She named my sin and invited me into confession, and there were certainly some things I needed to confess before God, myself and my friend, namely my fear-laden, avoidance of obedience to follow through an invitation God is extending to me in this season.
Sin/disobedience can leave us believing we have already arrived, that we have journeyed far, given it our all, and reached our final destination. We tell ourselves we have actually experienced the roadblocks and detours on the road ahead, when often, in reality, we have only perceived them, and we haven’t even taken the first step toward the next destination on our journey. Instead, we sit shivering, holed up in some makeshift shack on the side of the road we have convinced ourselves is home because obedience can be scary.
However, confession is a practice of homecoming. It invites us to name the ways we have walked in fear rather than faith, and chronic cynicism rather than hope. Confession invites us to lay down that which is binding us and keeping us “here,” and to repent, taking up God’s view of reality and walking in God’s truth so we may get “there”—the destination to which God is inviting us.
For years, my walk with Christ has been marked by two questions: 1) What is God saying to me? 2) What am I doing about it?* These questions frighten me some days as they push against my fear and disobedience, but I find life and reassurance in knowing they always, always invite me home.
ACTION STEPS: What is God saying to you in this season? What are you doing about it? Is there anything hindering you from obedience? Pray. Name it. Confess it and choose to walk in obedience today.
These questions are asked widely, but I credit my own personal engagement with them to Jo Saxton and 3DM.
Photo Credit: Carlos Grury Santos