Liturgy for Life : WK 3 - WED
Process And Patience
Psalm 32:1-5
Oh, what joy for those
whose disobedience is forgiven,
whose sin is put out of sight!
Yes, what joy for those
whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt,
whose lives are lived in complete honesty!
When I refused to confess my sin,
my body wasted away,
and I groaned all day long.
Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me.
My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. Interlude
Finally, I confessed all my sins to you
and stopped trying to hide my guilt.
I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.”
And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.
The psalmist’s prayer today reveals the struggle of the process of confession and repentance. It is not always easy to say “Hey, Jesus, these are things I’ve done and they are awful,” or “I’m not as great as I thought I was.” Even harder still is to go to your community and say “can I be honest, I have been hurting you and I’m sorry.” But yet we must. To live holding on to sin and secrets, resentment and pride, these are a recipe for our body wasting away. No one wants to live hiding in guilt, or feeling heavy, or having our “strength evaporated” as the psalmist says.
It is easy to say, “just confess and it is all good,” and it would be wrong in some ways to say this, because our text shows us the emotions behind confession. While confession can happen in a moment, forgiveness is a slow process. There is healing involved that takes time. There is discipline involved that is slow. Especially in our human to human interactions, confession and forgiveness is a process that requires patience, listening, and time. I hope this reality is encouraging to you, because the relationships that are broken around you have hope of repair, but it’s a process that can’t be forced. All we can do today is confess, repent, and try to walk in the light. Tomorrow we wake up, and do it all over again.
Psalm 32:1-5
Oh, what joy for those
whose disobedience is forgiven,
whose sin is put out of sight!
Yes, what joy for those
whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt,
whose lives are lived in complete honesty!
When I refused to confess my sin,
my body wasted away,
and I groaned all day long.
Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me.
My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. Interlude
Finally, I confessed all my sins to you
and stopped trying to hide my guilt.
I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.”
And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.
The psalmist’s prayer today reveals the struggle of the process of confession and repentance. It is not always easy to say “Hey, Jesus, these are things I’ve done and they are awful,” or “I’m not as great as I thought I was.” Even harder still is to go to your community and say “can I be honest, I have been hurting you and I’m sorry.” But yet we must. To live holding on to sin and secrets, resentment and pride, these are a recipe for our body wasting away. No one wants to live hiding in guilt, or feeling heavy, or having our “strength evaporated” as the psalmist says.
It is easy to say, “just confess and it is all good,” and it would be wrong in some ways to say this, because our text shows us the emotions behind confession. While confession can happen in a moment, forgiveness is a slow process. There is healing involved that takes time. There is discipline involved that is slow. Especially in our human to human interactions, confession and forgiveness is a process that requires patience, listening, and time. I hope this reality is encouraging to you, because the relationships that are broken around you have hope of repair, but it’s a process that can’t be forced. All we can do today is confess, repent, and try to walk in the light. Tomorrow we wake up, and do it all over again.
- Do you have a tendency to say “I’m sorry” and expect everything to be great? How can we remind ourselves that healing takes time?
- Is there someone in your life that has hurt you so much that it’s hard to forgive? Does it change your understanding to know you can forgive them and still have wounds that need healing?
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