I have a confession: Last year, my husband and I enjoyed watching a romantic reality TV show together on the same night every week. We had fun laughing together (and, yes, sometimes crying) at the characters and their questionable dating choices. This was very different from watching the show alone on my laptop. It was a shared experience that was even more emotionally moving and gave us something to look forward to each week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the Christian faith, we have lots of community activities, but we don\u2019t always confess our sins as a group. The focus tends to be on individual sins and a personal relationship with Jesus. Many of us don\u2019t experience the joy and freedom that a corporate confession can bring, like the Israelites did in today\u2019s passage. We might feel these on some level during personal times of prayer. But there\u2019s something powerful about repenting in a room where you may be sitting very close to a person you don\u2019t like or have conflict with. God\u2019s love breaks our hearts in places where we desperately need it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Nehemiah 9:2, the author wrote: \u201cThose of Israelite descent separated themselves from all foreigners, and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their ancestors.\u201d Here, we see God\u2019s people set themselves apart before bringing not just their present-day sins as a nation but the sins of those who came before them. When was the last time any of us did this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Israelites would often offer a sacrifice to atone for their sins. In the Christian faith, we talk about a sacrifice of praise instead. We confess our sins to the Savior who has already atoned for us. After the nation of Israel repented for turning away from the law, the Levite priests led them into a renewal of the covenant (vv.5\u201337).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Corporate confession isn\u2019t lost on us today. We often bring our sins to God in church services. In some churches, pastors lead the congregation through a reading that prompts everyone to confess their sins together. One reading goes like this: \u201cMost merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone…\u201d Doing this together, though, is not separate from what God is looking for most: each individual\u2019s heart being transformed by His love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whether in watching TV to the confession of sin, when we\u2019re participating with others, we\u2019re reminded that we\u2019re not alone. Confession as believers is a beautiful thing because it puts us in our rightful place, and it brings God praise. \u201cTherefore,\u201d says Hebrews, \u201cthrough him let us continually offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name\u201d (Hebrews 13:15).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have a confession: Last year, my husband and I enjoyed watching a romantic reality TV show together on the same night every week. We had fun laughing together (and, yes, sometimes crying) at the characters and their questionable dating choices. This was very different from watching the show alone on my laptop. It was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":72540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[304],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nehemiah25"],"acf":{"hero_background_image":false,"related_plans":[72617],"weekly_truth":false,"grace_day":false,"share_text":"#SheReadsTruth","devotional_text":"NATIONAL CONFESSION OF SIN<\/b>
\r\nby Bailey Gillespie<\/i>
\r\n
I have a confession: Last year, my husband and I enjoyed watching a romantic reality TV show together on the same night every week. We had fun laughing together (and, yes, sometimes crying) at the characters and their questionable dating choices. This was very different from watching the show alone on my laptop. It was a shared experience that was even more emotionally moving and gave us something to look forward to each week.<\/p>
\r\n
In the Christian faith, we have lots of community activities, but we don\u2019t always confess our sins as a group. The focus tends to be on individual sins and a personal relationship with Jesus. Many of us don\u2019t experience the joy and freedom that a corporate confession can bring, like the Israelites did in today\u2019s passage. We might feel these on some level during personal times of prayer. But there\u2019s something powerful about repenting in a room where you may be sitting very close to a person you don\u2019t like or have conflict with. God\u2019s love breaks our hearts in places where we desperately need it.<\/p>
\r\n
In Nehemiah 9:2, the author wrote: \u201cThose of Israelite descent separated themselves from all foreigners, and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their ancestors.\u201d Here, we see God\u2019s people set themselves apart before bringing not just their present-day sins as a nation but the sins of those who came before them. When was the last time any of us did this?<\/p>
\r\n
The Israelites would often offer a sacrifice to atone for their sins. In the Christian faith, we talk about a sacrifice of praise instead. We confess our sins to the Savior who has already atoned for us. After the nation of Israel repented for turning away from the law, the Levite priests led them into a renewal of the covenant (vv.5\u201337).<\/p>
\r\n
Corporate confession isn\u2019t lost on us today. We often bring our sins to God in church services. In some churches, pastors lead the congregation through a reading that prompts everyone to confess their sins together. One reading goes like this: \u201cMost merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone...\u201d Doing this together, though, is not separate from what God is looking for most: each individual\u2019s heart being transformed by His love.<\/p>
\r\n
Whether in watching TV to the confession of sin, when we\u2019re participating with others, we\u2019re reminded that we\u2019re not alone. Confession as believers is a beautiful thing because it puts us in our rightful place, and it brings God praise. \u201cTherefore,\u201d says Hebrews, \u201cthrough him let us continually offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name\u201d (Hebrews 13:15).<\/p>","share_image_height":"640","day_number":"12","scripture":"Nehemiah 9:1-37, Hebrews 13:15","available":true,"ad_banner_name":"","ad_banner_image":false,"ad_banner_url":"","songs":"","key_verse":"","key_verse_reference":"","background_image":false,"background_color":"#FBF7F3","scripture_references":false,"share_image":false,"author_name":"","author_bio":"","guest_social_media":false,"show_ad":true,"ad_override":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}