Good day to you, too! It's cloudy here as well. We are saving a lot of money by not having to use our in-ground sprinkling system much this summer, so I like the rain.
I was thinking about your comment regarding our Lord already knowing all our deepest, darkest secrets. There is certainly nothing hidden from him. I think about, then, why does he desire, command, that we confess our sins both to him and to each other? I believe the answer is in the very word used for confess. It is to "name it as He names it". It is admitting our faults, our deeds, our acts of commission as well as omission, without any rationalization or justification, stripping away the reasons, the excuses. "Coming clean" in other words.
He already knows the truth, he has the "goods" on us anyway, so this is for our own benefit. By this action we are then promised forgiveness, cleansing, and restoration of fellowship with him. When we confess to others - those we have wronged - we are admitting our own failure towards them and asking them for their forgiveness. We are also asking others to come along side us to help us stay faithful and true to our calling in Christ. There is accountability when we are honest and open with each other.
God has indeed given us this as a "gift". We need to see it as such and appreciate all the ways he intends to bless us by it.
Allow me to work with the controversial example of confessing to an offishul holy d00d.Please finesse the controversial aspect.
I strut around all full of being forgiven, all full of God's love not only being more important than my sin but the most important thing of all.
Right up until I have to put my money where my mouth is and demonstrate that I base my self-concept not on me or on what others think of me but on what God has done for me.
And all of a sudden it's “Um yea, but I have these pencils to sharpen. Let me get back to you on that.”
TO get all Catholicked (unless you're going to be baptized) you have to make a confession. So a friend whom I was sponsoring just asked me to sit with here until it was her turn. So of course I did, and maybe 20 minutes later (it was a “whole life, hitting the low spots” type of deal) she came out and said, “THAT is the best weight loss program ever!”
But it's not any magic, really. It's just perzackly what you said. It's the weight of sin, doubled or trebled by the weight of vanity. Just take that bracing first step into the ice-cold pool — and it turns out to be a nice warm bath!
Is God great or WHAT?
PS: LOVE the insight on the word “confess.”
MUCH AGREE. AMEN AMEN!