Rummaging for Maybe-Sins

One of the dangers of having a weekly confession of sin in the worship service is the temptation to think that in order to be super spiritual you need to rummage around in your heart and try to find some sin to confess. Now, on the one hand, we are sinners, and so sin really isn’t that hard to find, but on the other hand, we are Christians, and so we are learning the habits of confessing sin and keeping short accounts, which means that you might walk into church on any given Sunday morning and honestly not be able to think of anything that you haven’t put right. If you’ve been busy confessing sin all week long and you’ve come into worship and can’t think of anything just ask God to search you and show you if there’s any sin you are missing and thank Him for His faithful work in you.

But one reason you might not be able to think of anything is because you have a vested interest in not thinking of anything. Because if you actually thought about it, it would get messy real fast. And this is why people sometimes start furiously rummaging and pulling out random, vague confessions, as a distraction tactic. I think I might have worried on Tuesday is not a confession of sin, and worse, confessing those sorts of things when you really did lose your temper or looked at pornography or lied – a flailing confession of I-might-have-worried is actually an act of insolence. Do you not know that God sees it all? Do you know not know that God sees you playing games with Him? Do you not fear Him?

So as we gather week after week, allow this moment to be a reminder that we stand before God only by His grace, but it’s an honest grace. And so we want to be honest before God. But your goal should be to confess your sins as quickly as possible throughout the week, and if you’re doing that then use the confession of sin to give thanks for that and ask for more faithfulness there. But do not use this moment to rummage around in your heart for maybe-sins either because you think you ought to feel guilty or because you know you’re guilty for something else and you’re avoiding that.

Photo by Craig Whitehead on Unsplash