We need to silence ourselves so that we can focus on God as He is calling us to salvation. This daily devotional looks at what a humble confession is and how and why we confess.
Nuggets
- Silence is the foundation of a humble confession.
- Salvation comes only through believing God sent Jesus to die to pay the penalty for our sins and, because of that belief, submitting to Him as Sovereign Lord.
- There is an important reason why we are silent and confess to God.
To read devotions in the Redo for Godliness series, click the appropriate button below.
Devotions in the Silence of the Soul series
The intersection of faith and repentance is confession. But how does that provide us silence in our soul?
Let's Put It into Context
Our soul is our spiritual part that is immortal. The mind is a component of the soul that controls our will. It is in our minds that we process and make judgments and decisions.
Confession is a declaration that we have sin in our lives and are a repentant sinner, a conscious request to God for forgiveness of that sin, and the commitment of faith that God, as Sovereign Lord, can and will forgive those sins.
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
What Is a Humble Confession?
“For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, ‘In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.’ …” (Isa. 30: 15 ESV)
Silence is the foundation of a humble confession.
We were separated from God as a consequence of the original sin. That necessitates the return.
Glossary
God sends His Holy Spirit to convict us of our sins. Sins are actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings. The Spirit teaches us how to return to Him.
We won’t know true silence until we return to God. We start to experience the silence so that we can focus on the Holy Spirit’s promptings.
The silence, however, is also a product of our turning to God, Look where it comes in: returning, rest, quietness, and trust.
Robins brought up a dichotomy within God’s church. While God teaches us collectively, He also teaches us individually.
God is teaching us all, however, the same thing. Robins wrote that it was “… that upon Him they are to depend, and not upon human help.” We are to look to God alone for our protection and provision of our needs.
Resource
When we figure that our dependence is on Him, we fully return to Him. We humbly confess to Him by ABCDing.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
We sometimes talk of returning to God broken. Don’t think of that in worldview terms. We aren’t talking about a physical brokenness.
This is more of a concept of our knowing just how much we need God in our lives. We are broken in terms of struggling against and resisting Him.
The cessation of our struggles against God brings us rest. This is tied up in our dependence of Him. We don’t have to be the Lone Ranger, struggling against Satan ourselves.
Norwood reminded us that quietness and confidence are states of the mind. Merry defined those concepts for us. He wrote, “‘Quietness’ is just collectedness, repose, equanimity, freedom from excitement and boisterousness. ‘Confidence’ is trust, reliance, upon God, producing, if not implying, a calm and steadfast courage.” He called them strength of character.
Resource
I love how Norwood corrected our thinking on quietness. It is easy to buy into the worldview opinion that being quiet shows weakness. Instead, Norwood said that “it means strength of purpose, combined with calm collectedness of thought as well as of word and act.”
Resource
There is nothing weak about resting in God.
Confidence is a skill that we can grow. I love that Norwood called it “… faith in exercise” and our link to God.
We exercise that faith by searching for and seeking God. Faith is the conviction that the doctrines revealed in God’s Word are true, even if we do not understand all aspects of them, a belief which impacts our lives. We grow our endurance as we grow our faith.
Searching for and Seeking God
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11).
It is a progression, isn’t it? Once we return to God, we find rest in Him. As we quiet our souls to listen to His promptings, our trust in Him grows.
How Do We Confess to God?
“To the choirmaster: according to Jeduthun. A Psalm of David. For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken” (Ps. 62: 1-2 ESV)
Salvation comes only through believing God sent Jesus to die to pay the penalty for our sins and, because of that belief, submitting to Him as Sovereign Lord.
David showed us in the first couple of verses of Psalm 62 what confidence looked like. His soul waited in silence because God was his fortress.
Spurgeon wrote that these verses extend our discussion on knowing and learning about God. That is important because He is the only avenue to salvation. “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved” (Ac. 4: 12 CSB).
Resource
Salvation is deliverance from evil and the consequences of sins to replace them with good and eternal life. The consequences of sin are spiritual death and physical separation from God. Spiritual death is the spiritual separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin. The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God. Eternal life is the promise of living eternally – even if we have died in this life – because we have admitted our sins, believed Jesus as Savior and Redeemer, and confessed God as Sovereign Lord.
We just need to put our faith in Him. Maclaren described the silent faith as perfect submission.
The description Maclaren gave reminded me of what we think of being balanced. He wrote, “His whole being is one of great stillness, broken by no clamorous passions; by no loud-voiced desires; by no remonstrating reluctance.”
Resource
Glossary
Maclaren said that we first must use our free will to determine our being silent. We decide how we are going to respond to God’s call of salvation.
Why Do We Confess to God?
“Be silent before the Lord God! For the day of the Lord is near; the Lord has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated his guests” (Zech. 1: 7 ESV)
There is an important reason why we are silent and confess to God.
One day, we will stand silently before the Lord. This will be called day of the Lord because it is when we will be called home.
It will be judgment day. Judgment day is a day in the future when this heaven and earth end and God uses Jesus to judge whether sinners have ABCDed and punish them accordingly.
This is where Jesus will separate the sheep from the goats. How we spend eternity will depend on which cut we make.
Glossary
Which cut we make depends solely upon whether we have ABCDed. Have we asked Jesus to be our Savior and lived like we made that decision?
Making the Connections
Krause pointed out that Israel’s problem was that they believed something different from what God said. That got them in trouble.
Resource
It can get us in trouble, too. The worldview wants us to believe that what God calls sins really isn’t.
They are going to find out differently because their leader — Satan — is going to lose the war. God alone gets to say what sins are — not Satan and not us.
Coe warned us that we need to make sure we can identify the worldview. In fact, he felt we need to be able to discriminate between the subtle differences of positions even when we are in agreement.
Resource
Robins had another great nugget. He wrote, “Faith has indeed oftentimes its best exercise in the time of the heaviest trial[.] It is made to bring forth its richest and rarest fruits.”
Resource
God does put a testing in front of us or allows Satan to throw out a trial in our path. He let’s us figure out for ourselves that we have to depend on Him.
Then God is right there to hear our confession when we come back to Him. The rewards God brings for successfully navigating those trials are phenomenal.
How Do We Apply This?
- The strength promised in Isaiah 30: 15 is conditional on our confessing and returning to God. That means we need to confess.
- We need to trust in God always, regardless of the circumstances.
- Maclaren reminds us to follow God’s Will in our lives.
- We should keep worldview thoughts at bay by focusing on God.
Resource
Quietness and confidence are strength of character. That means we need to cultivate them during our redo for godliness. Merry gave us a list of components associated with them.
- Thought
- Reflection
- Judgment
- Self-control
Merry also gave us this reminder to accomplish our redo. He wrote, “All religious progress depends, primarily and efficiently, upon the grace of God.”
Resource
I can see the connection between the quietness and confidence. One is like a giving up and one is like a receiving. We give us the chaos and turmoil to gain the trust.
It is very important for us to use our free will and make a decision whether or not we are going to accept God’s offer of the Plan of Salvation. Our eternal life is depending on our decision.
Father God. We know we are separated from You. We admit that we are sinners. We believe that through Jesus is the only way that our relationships with You can be restored. We confess You as our Sovereign God. We dedicate our lives to becoming sanctified so that we will have Your character. Amen.
What do you think?
Leave me a comment below (about this or anything else) or head over to my Facebook group for some interactive discussion.
If you don’t understand something and would like further clarification, please contact me.
If you have not signed up for the email daily or weekly providing the link to the devotions and the newsletter, do so below.
If God has used this devotion to speak with you, consider sharing it on social media.