Debts

How many times have I prayed that original prayer, "Dear Lord, please forgive me of my sins", and then gone on with whatever other prayer requests I had.  Probably a million times.  I hate to say it, but I don't ever really think about asking God to cleanse me from my sins.  I ask to be forgiven and then most days I probably repeat the same sins, that I was supposed to be sorry for.  

I've been reading a book by Dick Eastman called The Hour That Changed the World, it's all about prayer and how we should really do it.  Today it was all about confession and asking for forgiveness for our sins before we go before God.  It started out with a quote by Andrew Murray that said, "God cannot hear the prayers on our lips often because the desires of our heart after the world cry out to Him much more strongly and loudly than our desires for Him."  How true this is!  I know there have been many, many times where I've rushed through a prayer thinking about something a friend might have said, or what I was going to do afterwards.  God doesn't ask us to confess our sins because He needs to know we have sinned, he already knows we have.  He wants us to confess our sins because He knows that we need to know we have sinned.  In Psalm 66:18 it says, "If I regard wickedness in my heart, The Lord will not hear."  Thus, there can be no sin if we want an effective prayer life!  

Dick Eastman says, "This is why confessions is critical to our praying and should be implemented early in prayer.  It clears the conscience of faith-killing guilt and opens the heart to truly believe God will hear our petitions."  Another interesting thought from him was, "There can be no healing within until there is first confession without.  Confession is conditional to cleansing."  

I had never thought of it this way!  It shows how truly important it is to take time to repent.  I probably should of learned this years ago, but I'm really glad to know it now.  Just a little food for thought for you guys! :)