CONFESSION
When David was racked with guilt, he longed to be cleansed so that he could be ‘white as snow’. Despite the murder of Uriah and adultery with Bathsheba, there was a route for David out of the dark shadows to renewed joy and purity. That route’s signpost is the same for everyone for ‘all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) – confession. From the mightiest royalty to the poorest pauper, there are any number of ways we can lose our joy and intimacy with God but there’s only one way it can truly be restored: ‘Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD.” And you forgave the guilt of my sin’ – Psalm 32:5
A clean slate, a fresh beginning and a new flowering – these are the yearnings of the soul. It’s not so much to do with the ‘severity’ of the sin as with the state of the heart and how we handle the little word ‘IF’.