As we jump back to the hour of prayer, we enter the 3rd section of the clock (If you look at the 12 hours on a clock – each hour can be a reminder for a different category of prayer!) [BTW – this clock idea of prayer comes from The Hour that Changes the World by Dick Eastman. But let’s quick review where we’ve been:
- Praise: Can we pray one hour?
- Praise: Growing our praise time
- Praise: Praising God for Creation
- Praise: Praising God our Father
- Praise: Praising God our King
- Waiting: Waiting on the Lord
- Waiting: Waiting on His Timing
- Waiting: Waiting on His Will
- Waiting: Waiting on His Peace
- Waiting: Waiting on His Authority
- Confession: Returning to Effective Prayer
We’ve posted once for each minute – to give you ideas on how to stretch your prayer time with God. Now we enter the third “section” – confession – here’s something to stretch your prayer time into the 11th minute!
An awareness of our past failures especially tends to buffet the mind as we pray. Suddenly we feel hopelessly unworthy of offering our petitions. The devil has gained a victory and soon we stop praying altogether.
To combat these spiritual attacks we must take at face value all the promises of God concerning confession. “If we confess our sins,” declared the apostle John, “He [God] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). If unrighteousness renders our praying ineffective, then confession is the solution to the problem of sin-guilt in prayer.
While you’re praying – search your heart for sin that needs to be confessed, so that there’s nothing between your soul and the Saviour!
As you’re looking for sin that needs to be confessed, browse the list of Biblical commands we’ve put together. We’ve found over 800 commands in the New Testament alone!
