Reset your righteousness
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9
A vital part of a season of prayer and fasting is taking time to examine yourself, to do a stock take of your life and ask the Holy Spirit to identify any areas of sin that you need to confess and repent of.
Sin is any aspect of our life where we miss the mark and fall short of God’s standards. We can sin by commission, which is when we actively and intentionally do something God has instructed us not to. We can also sin by omission, which is when we don’t do something God has instructed us to do. James reminds us in James 4:17 that “whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin”. As we go through life we will all sin at various times, in various ways, and it is easy to take our eyes of God’s will and let sinful habits creep in. It can be all to tempting to justify areas of compromise, because, after all, everyone else is doing it too.
The problem with sin isn’t that it makes us bad, but that it makes us dead. We are warned that the wages of sin is death. It leaves us cut off from relationship with God, for He is holy and He hates sin. When sin is in control of us the ultimate destination of our life is ruin and destruction. But fortunately, God does not leave us to that fate.
Through the atoning sacrificial death of Jesus in our place on the cross there is the offer of forgiveness. When we confess our sins He cleanses us, washing us white as snow. We are justified, able to stand before God clothed in a righteousness we do not deserve and could never earn by our own merits.
During this season of prayer and fasting we must re-examine our lives. We must confess any sinful patterns or acts that have crept in and ask the Holy Spirit to help us uproot them and remove them from our lives. This is a chance to reset, to get cleansed from unrighteousness and to be made pure again by the blood of the Lamb.
Prayer focus
Spend time today confessing your sins to God. Thank Jesus for the gift of forgiveness made possible by His death on the grace. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you boldness to share the good news of forgiveness with others.
