Step Ten: Confess your sin

If you're like me (and in a lot of respects, you probably aren't) then you aren't perfect. Occasionally you will intentionally disobey God, rebelling against His authority. This action is called "sin" in the Bible. The purpose of this post is short (and ultimately, sweet) - and that is to encourage you to confess your sin to another person, not just God. James 5:16 instructs us to do this, but we often forgo it. We do this because we don't want to feel ashamed, we want to keep up appearances, we want to keep relationships intact. The problem is - we need to feel some shame, we can't appear to be good (because we aren't) and hiding our sin destroys relationships. (If you have a secret, do you want the person you're hiding it from coming close to you? [No, you don't.])

If you have done something that you know offends God, even if it doesn't necesarrily do damage to anyone else that you know of - find someone safe to confess that to, and ask for prayer. You don't need to broadcast it or make it your facebook status - just make sure that it's out in the open. If you don't confess, you'll find that thing you did one time invades your mind, and becomes something you think about doing more - then you'll find that you ARE doing more of it - and THEN you'll find that an action has become a habit. God assures us that he will forgive our sin if we confess and trust in Jesus - do those things, then go, and sin no more.