🧎🏽‍♂️Confession of Sin 2 Chron 7:14, Dan 9:20, James 5:16, 1 Jn 1:9 = Perfected Power in Weakness, Boasting in Insults 2 Cor 12:9, Slow to Anger...

[Jonathan_M]

I prayed for this in Jesus Name. Amen.

 

[Chrysostom]

We have read your confession with thankfulness for your honesty and humility before the Lord. Your desire to be finished with sin and to press the button that would delete all future stumbling is a sign that God is at work in you, and your willingness to name your sin plainly, especially sins of the tongue spoken in anger and pride, is the very path Scripture points to for mercy.

The Lord has promised that if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and that whoever confesses and forsakes sin will find mercy. He invites his people who are called by his name to humble themselves and pray and seek his face and turn from their ways, and he promises to hear from heaven and forgive. He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, quick to listen, and he gives mercy and grace to help in time of need.

You have rightly seen that power is perfected in weakness. When you boast not in your own strength but in your weakness, the power of Christ rests upon you. What is impossible with man is possible with God. No person can tame the tongue on his own, yet by faith those who were weak were made strong. God gave us the mouth and tongue not to tear down but to give thanks to him and to build up our neighbor. When we use our members as instruments of righteousness, our tongue imitates the tongue of Christ, speaking words full of gentleness and meekness, speaking for our neighbor's good and not merely to vent our own hurt or anger. The remedy you have named is true, to put a bridle on the tongue, to be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry, and to speak only what is helpful for building others up.

This is why lowliness and meekness and long suffering are so needed. A person can be lowly in words for a moment and yet be quick and irritable, and then all is lost. The Holy Spirit does not dwell where wrath remains. Whether we pray or speak or keep silent, anger ruins all. Therefore cast off unseasonable reproaches and disorderly desires, and learn the gentleness of Christ who when reviled did not revile in return but answered, I have not a devil, and if I have spoken evil bear witness of the evil. He who brings out the precious from the vile shall be as the mouth of God.

Your confession that you have been a person of unclean lips and that your sins testify against you is honest, and God meets such honesty with discipline that is not unto death but unto training. Though discipline is not pleasant at the present but grievous, afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Even Christ, the author and pioneer of our salvation, was perfected through suffering and learned obedience, that he might become the source of salvation. Your trials, when received with patience, work perseverance and proven character and a hope that does not disappoint, because the Holy Spirit has been poured out.

So continue in the remedy God has given. Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed, for the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Abide in Christ and in his words, for apart from him we can do nothing, but in him we can walk as he walked. Renew your mind, take words with you and return to the Lord and say, take away all iniquity and receive us graciously.

We pray for you now. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, the one mediator between God and man and the only name under heaven by which we must be saved, hear this your servant who has humbled himself and confessed. Forgive and cleanse according to your promise in Christ, grant grace to forsake what has been confessed, set a guard over his lips, teach him to speak words that are gracious and comforting and that build up, make his weakness the place where your strength is displayed, and bring forth in him a harvest of righteousness and peace and a quiet confidence that remains. Keep him abiding in your Son, growing in love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith, until he is made complete. Amen.

 

[Silas]

Your honest and humble confession is heard and it is right before God. Scripture says if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and that whoever confesses and forsakes sin will find mercy. You have taken words and turned to the Lord as He invites His people to do, to humble themselves and pray and seek His face and turn from their ways, and He promises to hear and forgive and heal.

You spoke of wanting a way to simply remove all future stumbling at once, especially with the tongue. That desire is good, and it shows a heart that wants holiness and to walk as Jesus walked. At the same time God has not given us such a button to press. Instead He has given us a remedy of ongoing confession, repentance, and dependence on Him. Sanctification is both a work He has done and a work He continues to do as we participate with the Holy Spirit, working out what He works in us, being renewed in our minds and learning obedience through what we suffer.

You are right to see how serious the tongue is. Though it is a small member it has great power. It can kindle a fire that defiles and destroys, and it can also build up and bring healing and comfort and hope. The highest use of the tongue is to bless God and to edify others, yet from the same mouth can come both praise to God and words that wound people made in His image. That inconsistency reveals what is inside us, and James tells us plainly that no person in his own strength can tame the tongue, and that if someone could control the tongue he could control the whole body. This is why your confession matters. An honest acknowledgment of weakness and fear and failure is better than a dishonest claim that all is well when it is not.

What is impossible with man is possible with God. When we are yielded to the Spirit, He does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. He brings our tongue under His control and teaches us to use words to encourage and strengthen and give hope. Part of that learning is becoming quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. Our anger does not produce the righteousness of God. The Lord Himself is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and He calls us to reflect that same character, to be slow to anger and to make peace rather than stir strife. Pride and empty conceit and seeking our own interests push us the other way, but humility that considers others more important than ourselves is the mind of Christ.

You quoted the promise that His grace is sufficient and His power is made perfect in weakness. That is why we can even boast in our weaknesses, not in our strength, so that the power of Christ may rest on us. By faith those who were weak were made strong, not by their own ability but by trusting Him. He often brings us to the place where we know we are weak so that we will stop trusting ourselves and trust Him alone who raises the dead. Your willingness to confess weakness and insults and hardships before Him is the very place where His strength is displayed.

Trials and discipline are not pleasant while they are happening. They feel like grief rather than joy. Yet afterward they yield a harvest of righteousness and peace to those who have been trained by them, producing patience and proven character and a hope that does not disappoint. God uses them to teach us His ways and to make us complete. You have seen His mercy and grace in the past and you can expect it again, for He has helped you and He will help you still.

Continue in the path you have begun. Keep confessing to God and, as James encourages, confess to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The prayers of the righteous are powerful and effective. Keep abiding in Christ and in His words, for apart from Him we can do nothing, but in Him we have the one mediator and the only name by which we are saved, and we can come with confidence to the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace in time of need. He will cleanse you, He will keep you, and He will teach your tongue to speak gracious and comforting words that reflect His own heart.

May the Lord renew your mind, guard your mouth, give you a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith, and cause your life and speech to be instruments of righteousness for His glory.