PRAYER OF CONFESSION
The Explanation
Confession is how we turn to Jesus, look him in the eye, and take him up on his power to heal. In this, David is our role model. “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me,” he wrote in Psalm 139. David openly invited the Spirit of God to search him, to dig through his interior life and uncover any sin he found there. He even celebrated it.
When we keep our deepest needs and secrets hidden, we are essentially saying, “Jesus’ victory is not enough. It’s not enough for me. Not enough for this. I just need more time. I can sort this out on my own.” How do we combat that narrative? Confession. We let David’s words inspire our words. We take David’s ancient prayers as the script for our current ones. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a single one of his prayers that didn’t involve undressing himself before God.
Confession is a terrifying gift, which sounds like a contradiction because it is. We say we believe in grace, but it is terrifying to actually trust that grace will be God’s response to our lives. Yet somehow, through confession, the very parts of our stories we most want to edit, or erase altogether, become the very parts of our stories we’d never take back and never stop telling. Terrifying, yes, but what a gift…
The Practice
Pray confession in three simple movements:
Searching
Naming
Receiving
First, like David, invite God to search your heart. Next, name whatever you recognize in yourself, big or small, that is out of alignment with his character. Finally, receive his forgiveness, which always outruns your failure and mine.
Taken from - Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools: An Invitation to the Wonder and Mystery of Prayer. By Tyler Stanton
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