“You desire truth in my inmost being.”
Are confessing and professing the same thing?
We confess our sins. We profess our belief.
We confess to others when we have wronged them. We profess to others how much we love them.
When we confess, we also are professing.
Professing and confessing are both declarations of truth.
In his book Living Fearless, Jamie Winship defines confessing as truth-telling. “When we confess, we are telling the truth about where we have deviated or moved away from what is true about God, ourselves, and others.” (Winship, Jamie. Living Fearless. Revell Publishing, 2022, p. 57)
Often, we correlate confession in our prayer life to only that which we do wrong, our sins. But Jamie ties the concept of professing into confessing by challenging us to move beyond only admitting our sinful behavior to telling God how we have veered away from His truth. Jamie says, “Our tendency is to focus on wrong actions, and we miss the source, which is wrong belief.” (Winship, Jamie. Living Fearless. Revell Publishing, 2022, p. 57)
King David, in the Old Testament, knew the importance of professing and not just confessing. He grasped how a full confession embraced being utterly honest with God. David demonstrated professing in his prayers through many of the Psalms, where he cried out to God with full disclosure of his doubts, crazy thoughts, and deepest feelings that drew him away from what he knew to be true of God.
I know about my sins, and I cannot forget the burden of my guilt. You are really the one I have sinned against; I have disobeyed you and have done wrong.
But you want complete honesty, so teach me true wisdom.
Offerings and sacrifices are not what you want. The way to please you is to be truly sorry deep in our hearts. This is the kind of sacrifice you won’t refuse. (Psalm 51: 3-4, 6, 16-17, CEV, bold added for emphasis)
Psalm 51 is a passionate confession David wrote after being confronted by the prophet Nathan. Nathan held up the mirror, and David saw a candid reflection of his sinful behavior. He was humbled and broken-hearted. David held nothing back in his confession of professing not only his immoral behavior, but all that he felt and thought.
David reminds us how God desires “honesty from the womb, teaching me wisdom even there” (Psalm 51:6, NLT). The Hebrew word for “womb” or as Young’s Literal Translations says, “inner parts,” is tahu. Tahu is only used one other time in the Bible, in Job 38:6.
After Job’s gruesome experience of severe loss and harsh condemnation from his closest friends, God Himself reminds Job of how He alone already knows what lies in our innermost being and is the One who brings healing to our secret places in our hearts and minds. “Who has put wisdom in the inward parts, or given understanding to the mind?” (Job 38:36, NRSV)
When we are praying through it, being honest with God in our prayers is for our well-being. God already knows everything we might say and sees how we feel, but God understands honesty’s healing role. Out of His love for us, we are invited to be truthful with Him and receive the relief our openness can bring. We are empowered to move through one more day of our challenging circumstances.
While we need to be persistent and remember the power we have from Whom we pray, adding in professing the truth further equips us to keep praying and never give up.
I pray for this precious one who is growing weary from their journey. May God grant you the courage to be honest with Him and strengthen your innermost being as you open up those innermost parts to Him. May you sense the very presence of God blowing fresh wind in your sails to carry you through one more day and then one more and then one more…. In Jesus’ name, so be it.
Meditate: God desires me to tell Him everything.
Reflect: Do you feel you are honest with God in your prayers? Ask God to help you be honest, to see what you can not see, and to show you something you do not know about your situation. How can you be more honest in your prayers?
Deeper: Psalm 51; Ephesians 3:14-21; Job 38
For further encouragement, listen to the PODCAST on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, Google, IHeartRadio, and Podbean. Search God’s Word Gives Hope. LISTEN NOW
Receive Hope Every Week with Janae’s Thrive Newsletter, blog link included – Subscribe here
JSC Life & Leadership Coaching – I believe God has created each of us to thrive. Where are you not thriving? Work? Home? Life? Let me coach you. Contact me to schedule a consultation, and let’s get you moving forward. Contact Janae
Did you know you can follow God’s Word Gives Hope on Facebook and Instagram and be encouraged throughout the week?
(Bible References: NRSV – New Revised Standard Version, NLT – New Living Translation, CEV – Contemporary English Version)
#GodsWordGivesHope
#Hope #Bible #christianity
#PrayingThroughIt
#christianitytoday
#JSCLifeandLeadershipCoaching
