Maybe you have watched TLC’s “Clean Sweep.” It’s a show where people whose homes and lives are overrun with “stuff” are given an opportunity to “clean house,” get rid of a lot of stuff, and have newly-designed space for what they want to keep. The New Year provides a good opportunity for “clean sweeps” in our lives - catching up, taking care of leftover business, dealing with the “stuff” in our lives that is out of place and out of sorts. Have you been working on any end-of-the-year, beginning-of-the-year projects? Maybe your finances need attention, or you are purging unwanted items or activities, or catching up on paperwork, or cleaning out files and storage areas, or evaluating or rewriting your goals.

It’s good to close one year and begin another by making sure we are “up-to-date” and current in our relationship with God, to clean out the hidden areas of our hearts, our behavior, our values, our lives. It’s good to call attention to things about our spiritual life that we would like to see changed over the coming year. An essential element of getting current in your relationship with God is confession. Confession is coming clean with God, admitting our sins and failures to do his will, and agreeing with assessment of our sin.

In Israel’s history, after they were miraculously released from slavery in Egypt, God ultimately led them to their own land, as was promised to their father Abraham. But for them to stay in the land and prosper and have peace, they would need to stay loyal to their God, the One True God (Deut 28). But they failed to do that, even after many gracious warnings, and thus Babylon came and ransacked Jerusalem and carried many away into exile (605-586BC). God allowed this international incident in order to correct his people from their wayward ways.

God acts to correct us when we persist in sinful attitudes and behaviors. We are persisting in sin when we fail to confess appropriately. But God's plans, even when he disciplines us, are always for the good of his people. His corrective actions are painful, but they are usually short-lived, compared to the ever-present reality of God’s mercy (see Lamentations 3:21-33).

Based on God's promise of mercy and return to the land after 70 years, as prophesied by Jeremiah, Daniel humbly prayed, confessed, and asked God to do what he had promised. Notice that God's promises, providence, and the prayers of his people work together.

Read also 2 Chronicles 7:13-14, for another statement of God’s promise to hear his people when they call out to him. When we confess, God is gracious to forgive us and restore us to himself (1 John 1:9). In fact, the prospect of his grace should cause us to be quick to confess. In your confession, consider the following areas: family relationships, other personal relationships, your inner life / habits, failures to serve Jesus and others. Consider also the fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5:22-23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” To what degree are these elements a part of your everyday experience or not?

The reason God can be gracious and forgive us when we confess our sins is because Jesus died for us, paying the penalty of death we owed because of our sin (Romans 6:23). When we celebrate Communion, is a time for confession and recommitment to Christ, because we are remembering again that he is our Savior, who died in our place.