“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

In 1818 one out of six women who had children died of something called "childbirth fever."  A doctor’s daily routine back then started in the dissecting room, where they performed autopsies, and from there made their rounds to examine expectant mothers.  No one even thought to wash their hands...at least not until a doctor named Ignaz Semmelweis began to practice strict hand washing.  He was the very first doctor to associate a lack of hand washing with the huge fatality rate.  Dr. Semmelweis only lost one in fifty, yet his colleagues laughed at him.  He said, "Childbirth fever is caused by decomposed material conveyed to a wound...I have shown how it can be prevented.  I have proven all that I’ve said.  But while we talk, talk, talk, women are dying... I’m not asking for anything world shaking, only that you wash your hands."  Yet virtually no one believed him.

Jesus is not asking anything earth shaking from us.  We only need to confess our sins, to regularly wash our souls before God.  It’s essential.  The failure to confess our sins will result in spiritual infection that will hinder our ability in our spiritual journey.

Our Psalm today (32) encourages us to confess our sins so we can experience God's forgiveness.  David says that forgiven people are "blessed" He speaks from personal experience.  When he tried to hide his failures from God, it felt like he was dying on the inside. (Psalm 32:3) Like a heavy and humid summer heat, (we get this) David's unconfessed guilt sapped his energy.  But when he acknowledged what he had done, God quickly forgave him.

As king, David instructed his people to follow his example. (Psalm 32:8)  He wanted them to confess their sins and approach the God who surrounds them with both songs of freedom and unfailing love. (Psalm 32:10)  David ends by encouraging his people to rejoice and sing songs to the God who responds to their confessed sins with unfailing love, the lifting of guilt, and songs of deliverance. (Psalm 32:11)

Our challenge is simple, confess your sins to the Lord; admit where you have fallen short of God’s holy standard in word, deed, and thought, then lean into His amazing grace and enjoy the blessing of being clean.      Tom