If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
(1 John 1:9 NKJV)

I love this verse. It’s such a powerful, yet simple truth. If we blow it, if we sin, God says to us—don’t cover it up. Just admit it and then quit it—don’t do it again. But if you slip and repeat it, just run back to 1 John 1:9 and bring it to the Lord because He is faithful and just to forgive. I know it’s hard to believe that our God is this forgiving, but it’s true, He is. When people do us wrong, when they blow it, we tend to hold it over them, but not God—He takes it away! It’s the very reason that Jesus went to the cross. He went there to pay for our sins, to be punished on our behalf. That means God has no need to punish you for your sins, because He laid them all on Jesus. Here’s what the Word says:

Who Himself (Jesus) bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes we were healed.
(1 Peter 2:24 NKJV)

So if God is not beating you up, why are you beating on yourself? Listen, God’s plan for your life does not include you living in condemnation. Jesus came to set us free—free from shame, free from guilt, and free from condemnation. Whom the Son sets free is free indeed.

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit has made me free from the law of sin and death.
(Rom. 8:1-2 NKJV)

Some people think that if we talk too much about God’s forgiveness it causes us to look at sin too casually. But actually, I think the opposite is true. When you really get the revelation of how good God is and that it’s His will to forgive us, it ought to make us desire to live more holy. To live a life that is pleasing to our God. The One who not only forgives our sins, but wipes them from His memory.

…for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.
(Jer.31:34 NKJV)

So what opens up all this forgiveness to us? It’s our willingness to call our sin, sin! Be honest with yourself and with God. Tell him about it and He will forgive every time. So, just admit it and quit it.

Say It: Father, I confess my sin and ask You to forgive me. I believe that I receive forgiveness and now because I am free I will walk in all the righteousness that Jesus came to share with me. In Jesus’ Name. Amen!