Skip to main content

Confession is Worship


When we think about worshiping God, we probably think happy thoughts. We might envision ourselves in a sanctuary, hands lifted high as we sing powerful choruses. We might even think back to miraculous moments where God came through for us, and we couldn’t help but burst forth in praise.

 

These are good and important moments of worship, but we need to remember that worship can take place in the good and the bad, the highs and the lows. The moments described above could be classified as adoration and thanksgiving, worshiping God with a grateful heart because of how good He has been to us. And He has been very good to us. 

 

But the Bible gives us snapshots of people who worshiped God in their lowest moments as well. For example, when King David’s infant son died, II Samuel 12:20 tells us, “Then David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes. And he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. He then went to his own house.” Similarly, when Job lost everything, he also turned to God—“Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped (1:20).”

 

These men worshiped God in the valley, not just on the mountain. So keeping in mind that we can worship in difficult situations, consider that the Bible portrays confession of sin as an act of worship. After the Israelites experienced their stunning victory in Jericho, one soldier named Achan got greedy. All of the spoil was to be dedicated to God as a first fruits offering (there would be plenty more spoil as they took possession of the Promised Land), but Achan secretly stole a few items for himself. The Lord revealed that Achan had sinned, and it needed to be dealt with right away. 

In Joshua 7:19 we read, “Then Joshua said to Achan, ‘My son, give glory to the Lord God of Israel and give praise to him. And tell me now what you have done; do not hide it from me.’” Did you notice that Joshua equated confession of sin with giving glory to God? 

 

God is holy, and He therefore hates sin. To confess our sins literally means we “say the same thing” as someone else. Confession, then, means we agree with God that our sin is wrong. When we confess our sins, we are defending God’s righteous judgment. How could anyone in Israel fault God’s punishment when Achan agreed with God that He was wrong? God is vindicated by our confession.

 

That is not to suggest that God needs our vindication. God is inherently holy, whether we recognize it or not. But when we confess our sins it is the same effect as bragging on God’s other attributes, such as His mercy, goodness, and patience. Just as God is loving whether we tell people or not, God is holy and just whether we tell people or not. But when we confess our sins we have the opportunity to praise God in a unique way, so we should never pass up the opportunity. 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

To Save a Life

(Like my blog about the peace symbol, this blog was written as a default response to all the parents, students, and other people who are asking my opinion of To Save a Life.) By now you have probably heard of the movie To Save a Life, which opened nation-wide in theaters on January 22nd. The movie deals with so many issues that teens face today, like suicide, cutting, drinking, drugs, premarital sex, teen pregnancy, and abortion. At first glance this movie looks like an awesome resource that we should recommend for our teens, parents, youth pastors, and youth workers. But a closer look at the movie reveals a few disturbing things. For starters, according to pluggedin.com, there are 2 uses of the “A” word, 5 uses of hell (used as a curse word), and once the “D” word is used. There are other crude terms used to describe a girl, and crude terms for referring to sexual activity. There is also a bedroom scene that shows a girl removing a boy’s shirt, then afterwards the girl putting he...
38 comments
Read more

Evangelism

“Preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words.” St. Francis of Assisi is given credit for this famous quote (although that exact phrasing does not appear in any of his writings), and a lot of people would think that this is a great philosophy. His actual quote was that everyone should “preach by their deeds.” Preaching with our deeds is not just a strategy, it is a necessity. We are commanded all through the Scriptures to let our light shine and be a peculiar people. People should be able to look at our lives and see that we are Christians. They should see the love of Christ readily on display, and thus feel compelled to live their lives in the same way. The sermon that we should preach with our lives is a sermon of love, joy, peace, patience, self-control, forgiveness, conviction, etc. But this idea that has emerged that says we should ONLY preach with our deeds is a heresy straight from the devil himself. Think about it: who is the one that does not want you t...
18 comments
Read more

All Things To All Men

One of our favorite verses to use in our evangelism methods is where Paul said that he “becomes all things to all men” so that he might “by all means save some (I Corinthians 9:22).” This is certainly a good idea if we keep it in its proper context and application. For example, I remember a time in high school where I knew a kid that loved skateboarding. Being the chicken that I am, I was never a skateboarder. All he would talk about was skating, and I knew none of his lingo. But to help develop a relationship with him (he was new to our church and didn’t know many people), I brushed up on my skating lingo so I could ask if he had done any sick ollies lately (impressed?). This would be like Paul saying “to the skateboarder, I became a skateboarder.” This is effective and necessary. But then there are the people that use this verse to justify doing sinful things in the name of evangelism. The first one that comes to mind is about drinking. Some people will go into the bars to evan...
23 comments
Read more