Honestly? Glad to be done.

1.      Why is it so critical for us to seek the filling and leading of the Holy Spirit as we grow in our understanding of confession?

We cannot do anything without the Spirit's leading let alone confess appropriately. It is only through the Spirit that we have faith. We must depend upon the Spirit in all things. He knows what is good and right for us. He can place on our hearts those things that we could not recognize otherwise. And we are so far from confessional professionals these days, that we depend upon the Spirit to point out where would not even guess we have sinned.

2.     What possible extremes might we face if we confess on our own without the leading of the Holy Spirit?

As I mentioned before, there are a lot of things that we do everyday that we might not recognize as sin without the Spirit's guidance. Things that we have done for so long and so regularly that we do not understand why they could be sins. Only the Spirit can show them to us. That is one extreme. The extreme of ignorance.

The other extreme, in my opinion, would be the mental flagging we would give ourselves for those sins for which we cannot seem to get over or escape. Rather than beating ourselves up over these recurring sins, with the Spirit's leading, direction, He can help us overcome them in a way that would could not know ourselves. He can give us the tools that we might not recognize in order to help us. We would feel helpless otherwise. Helplessness leads to overwhelming hopelessness which is where we give in.

Psalm 51

3.     What do you learn about the heart of true confession from David's prayer?

It is all about God and what God can do. It has nothing to do with us. We cannot even wish to be righteous or try to be holy. We can only beg God to help us to want to be. David asks God to give him a contrite heart. We can train to make this our prayer as well.

4.     Restitution is the process of making things right with the person you have sinned against. If someone has stolen, they give back what they took. If someone has lied, they tell the truth … even if it hurts. Why is restitution essential for the confession and healing process to be complete?

It is an essential part of the confession process because it is the conclusion. What would be the point of reading a book if you always skipped the final chapter. There would be no resolution.

It is also the hardest part and I bet the part that most of us skip. It is painful. It makes us humble. It is our pride that prevents us from admitting our mistakes in the first place. And by not meeting this requirement of confession, we are missing out on the forgiveness of the one we hurt.

When we require ourselves to take this final step, it makes it all the harder to commit the same sin again. It makes us more accountable. We also must earn the trust of the one we wronged. We might also lose that trust forever and the trust of those around us. It forces us to trust the person we wronged to not only forgive us, but to love us anyway. I'm not that good.

Of course, if someone asked for my forgiveness, I'd probably say "no problem". I'm a door mat that way …

My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
   a broken and contrite heart
   you, God, will not despise.
Psalm 51:17 (NIV)