We have on more than one occasion emphasized the fact that confession is needed for the healing of many sicknesses. It is also needed for spiritual and emotional healing. However, keep in mind that “confession without repentance is a game.”

True repentance not only includes godly sorrow for the wrongs we have done, but literally means to turn around and go the opposite way. That is, with God’s help, we need to determine to stop committing the sins we confess.

Realize, too, that some (if not many) outward acts of sin are the “fruit of a deeper root.” That is, the obvious act of sin is the symptom of a deeper sin. And, as Cecil Osborne pointed out, “When we are hiding a deeper sin or fault, we confess a lesser one all the more vigorously.”

For instance, a critical, negative person is an angry person. If he is going to stop criticizing people, he also needs to confess and resolve his anger. A control freak is a very insecure person. To overcome her problem, she needs to confess and get help to resolve her insecurity. A man who lashes out and hurts the opposite sex (or uses them for sex) is more likely than not to have unresolved issues with his mother and is angry at her. He needs to confess not only his obvious sin against women, but also to admit, confess and resolve his issues with his mother. It’s the same with a woman who has unresolved issues with her father and is acting this out sexually. We either confess and talk out these issues in creative ways or we inevitably act them out in self-destructive and sinful ways.

Thus, true confession and genuine repentance require that we be personally honest, or, as David put it, without deceit in our spirit. That is, we are not living in denial. In other words, we need to see, admit, and confess not only our external acts of sins (the obvious ones), but also the deeper and often hidden “sins of the spirit” that cause us to act out in self-destructive and sinful ways. Without doing this, genuine repentance isn’t possible, because as long as we fail to confess and resolve our inner sins, we will continue to act them out in one destructive sinful way or another.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to see, admit and confess any deeper unresolved issue I may have that causes me to be sick or act out in sinful ways. Lead me to find the help I need to overcome these so my confession with repentance can and will be genuine. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. Psalm 32:1-2 (NIV).

In an issue of Our Daily Bread I read about Mark and Alice Westlind who are missionaries in Colombia. In one of their monthly letters they wrote the following:

“Driving through Christmas traffic, fighting the drizzling rain, I chanced on a 4-year-old little girl. She was wet and cold and shaking. Her clothes were ragged, her hair was matted, and her nose was running. She walked between the cars at the stoplight, washing headlights because she was too short to wash windshields. A few gave her coins, others honked at her to get away from their vehicles.

“As I drove away only some 50 cents poorer, I raged at God for the injustice in the world that allowed the situation. ‘God, how could you just stand by, helpless?’

“Later that evening, God came to me softly with that still small voice and responded not in like kind to my rage, but with tenderness, ‘I have done something. I created you.’”

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please give me a grateful heart for all the blessings and provisions You have so freely given to me. And give me a compassionate heart so that I will always share what I have with the poor and those who are genuinely in need—and are not in a position to be able to help themselves. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. Galatians 2:10.

When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, he targeted his appeal to where Jesus was, at that time, most vulnerable. Jesus had fasted for forty days and would have been very weak and hungry so Satan tempted him to turn stones into bread—a seemingly harmless thing for Jesus to do.

However, Jesus was aware of what Satan was up to so he rebuffed him by quoting God’s Word, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”²

Satan also tempts us in seemingly harmless ways—especially where we are vulnerable. But once we take the bait, he will lead us deeper down sin’s path.

Because Satan will often tempt us at a point of legitimate need, we need to make certain we get this need met in healthy ways so we won’t be susceptible to his tempting us to get them met in sinful, self-destructive ways!

When Satan does tempt us, an important way to rebuff him is to know God’s Word, memorize and meditate on it as David did, and quote it to him as Jesus did.

Dwight L. Moody, the renowned evangelist, knew the power of God’s Word too. He had written in the fly leaf of his Bible, “This book will keep me from sin or sin will keep me from this book.”

It pays to know God’s Word and hide it in our heart.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please give me a greater love for Your Word with the desire to hide it (memorize) it in my heart—and be quick to quote it when I am tempted. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. Psalm 119:11 (NIV).
2. Matthew 4:4 (NIV).

Sometimes it can be very difficult trying to understand the spirit of our age that has been described by some as a day of postmodernism. But what is postmodernism?

The following insights by Kenneth D. Boa and Robert M. Bowman Jr., in their book, 20 Compelling Evidences That God Exists, help me to understand a little of what is happening in today’s secular world. And to help understand post modernism Boa and Bowman summarize the major characteristics by using the acrostic P-O-S-T.

P-Power Controls Knowledge: “According to postmodernists, all knowledge is political. That is, what people believe is shaped largely by their relationship to the political powers that govern the institutions (such as schools and churches) through which knowledge is transmitted.”²

O-Objectivity Is Dead: “Different cultures, different religions, and other types of communities have different perspectives that give them their identity. Postmodernists contend that these different perspectives should be celebrated and preserved, not challenged or critiqued.”³

S-Science Constructs Models; It Does Not Describe Reality: In contrast to science being an understanding of the world as it really is “Thomas Kuhn’s 1962 landmark book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions itself led a revolution in science…. Kuhn has convinced a generation that science cannot and need not seek truth; its goal is rather an understanding of nature that meets the needs of the scientific community and of the larger society. Such a view of science, of course, implies that scientific theories are now to be assessed partly in terms of how well they support the values of those who pursue science.”⁴

T-Tolerance, Not Truth, Is Absolute: “The postmodernist understands tolerance to mean accepting people’s different beliefs and therefore refraining from criticizing or even disagreeing with those beliefs. Postmodernists are especially bothered by claims that a particular religious or ethical belief is the truth that all people ought to accept. Rather than examining such claims to see whether they hold up in light of the facts, postmodernists dismiss such claims as arrogant, narrow-minded, and intolerant.”⁵

Tragically, if we don’t correct course, postmodern political correctness will ultimately destroy us. Without access to the truth there is no reality, no freedom, no sense of direction, and no hope of salvation for mankind. No wonder so much of today’s world is floating in a sea of mass confusion. While we don’t agree with postmodernism, we do need to understand its basic tenets so we don’t get sucked into its empty, meaningless void.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me discern the difference between what is truth and what is meaningless rationalization used to justify what postmodernists want me to believe. Help me always to base my beliefs on principles that are found in, and/or in harmony with, Your eternal Word, the Bible. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. Jesus, in John 8:32 (NIV).

2. Kenneth D. Boa and Robert M. Bowman Jr., in their book, 20 Compelling Evidences That God Exists, Victor, Cook Communications Ministries, Colorado Springs, Colorado. p. 18.
3. Ibid, p. 19.
4. Ibid, p. 19.
5. Ibid, p. 19.