We are continuing our focus on what it means to purge ourselves of anything that blocks our relationship with God.
 
CONFESSING OUR SINS:
The fact that we do not often see our sins as relational shows up in the way we confess our sins. We tend to confess and lament the DEED that we have done but ignore the RELATIONAL ISSUE attached to the deed.
 
HUSBAND:
A DEED confession sounds something like this: I’m sorry I yelled at you.
Confessing a RELATIONAL SIN might sound like this: When I yelled at you I was exulting my self over you. I valued my self more than you. I was judging you and putting myself above you. I failed to cherish you. and value you.
 
The psalmist said, “Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”
Proverbs 12:18 (NIV) With our words we thrust deep into someone like a sword and then, because all we see on the outside appears like a scratch so try to cover over it with as with a bandaid.
 
STEALING:
Let’s say, you are at the store and the clerk gives you back more money than they should have. You take it and go on your way. Maybe later you begin to feel bad about that. So you pray about your deed, “God, I realize that what I did was stealing. I’m sorry, I’ll take it back.”
 
You now feel better because you admitted it and you replaced one bad deed for a good one. But the fact is that you failed to realize that what you did was a relational sin.
 
Here’s what you should have prayed: “Father, when I took that money, I sinned against you because I stepped outside of my life of trust in you. I failed to believe that you are the one who meets my needs
and I sought to meet my own needs.”
 
LYING:
You went to a men’s retreat and there, committed to the other men that you were going to read the Bible faithfully. Your friend asked you how you were doing on spending regularly time in the Word. You lie and said you were doing great.
 
Later you realize you had sinned and you ask your friend to forgive you for lying. (DEED)
 
What you should have done, was ask your friend to forgive you because you broke trust with your friend. That you were more concerned about how you looked than you were trusting your friend with your relationship.
 
When we focus on the deed, our sorry is most likely not a Godly sorry. It is a sorry that we can’t do the deed with out struggling with guilt.
 
Paul explained it this way, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” (2 Corinthians 7:10 (NIV)
 
So here is the question for us to ponder today: When I do wrong, do I confess my sin with my focus on the deed, or do I go deeper to confess my sin on the damage it has done to my relationship with God, or others, or myself?