St Ignatius Loyola developed a four week spiritual discipleship program to prepare recruits for a lifetime calling. The first two weeks were spend ridding the potential brother of his worldly affections. During this time, the novitiate was expected to keep a notebook of his confessions. Each page was a separate sin. At the top of the page, the novitiate would write the name of the sin “lust” for example. Then there would be a line that said “Day 1” Beside the day would be several lines. Each time he would think of committing that sin during the day, he would make a mark.
Underneath it would be “Day 2” Beside that day would be several lines. But there would be fewer lines than the first day. Underneath that would be “Day 3” and fewer lines, until the end of the period, when there would be a single small line.
The reason behind this organization was this—every time we confess our sins, the power of that sin is lessened. Confessing our sins on paper makes us remember them through the day. Avoiding them becomes a project to us. Confessing them releases God’s power and forgiveness in that segment of our lives.
Try this for a week. In your notebook, write out your confessions. Make sure you keep it hidden, of course—if you don’t, you’ll never be honest. Keep confessing your sins to God with ever instance you confess them, and keep track in your notebook when you do. In time, you will discover that even your most stubborn sins will lose their grip on you. Like a stubborn stain on a pot yields to much much scrubbing by a Brillo pad, a stubborn stain on the heart will yield eventually to prayerful effort.
While you do this, however keep a few things in mind.
A temptation is not a sin. We may feel pangs of jealousy, lust, or anger when something does not go our way. This is not in itself a sin. It is only when we harbor and encourage those thoughts that they become sins. Luther once famously said that you cannot keep birds from passing overhead, but you can keep them from nesting in your hand.
We confess specific sins, not just general ones. We are not simply lustful, we lust after particular women. We are not angry, we are angry at someone. Though we are sinners by nature, sins are specific. The Blood of Jesus covers and forgives out sinful nature. It is beyond our abilities to live without a sinful nature. But if we want to be rid of specific sins, and overcome specific tendencies to sin, we can go a long way towards doing that by confessing our sins specifically.
We confess specific sins once, not twice. “When we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us” (1 John 1:9) Confessing the same specific incident of sin twice is to suggest that it was not forgiven the first time. We may not feel forgiven after confession, but the Bible assures us that we are.
Public sins should be confessed publicly; private sins privately. There is a place for public confession, but it is not necessary to make all our private thoughts and actions public. In face, ti can be harmful to the relationships we have with others. God will let you know when our sins need to be addressed with others. For most of our confessions, though, it is better to keep them personal and private, between us and God.
Confession, properly and immediately done, should make us feel better, not worse. It should lead us to repentance and genuine life change, not further bondage to the same sins. Keeping a written record of these sins will help us access God’s power to overcome our sins.
God, give us the power to live by Your Commandments, to love You with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, our neighbor as ourselves, and to love one another as a witness to Your love.
Where I have hurt others, God, make me sorry. Where I have ignored others, make me pay attention, where I have helped myself at another’s expense, make me sorry enough to make restitution. Where I have boasted, make me humble, where I have been irritable, make me sweet, where I have cursed others, make me a blessing, and where I have criticized, make me accepting.
Every day, I have sinned, but every day You forgive. Thank you for your forgiveness. Help me to confess daily the sins I have done, so that I can begin again daily with a clean heart.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment