We’ve been building our “Hour of Prayer” one minute at a time:
- 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
Today, as we continue to look at confession, God says that this is not just you beating yourself up, this is how God demonstrates His mercy!
He that covereth his sins shall not prosper:
but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.Proverbs 28:13
We see the two requirements to obtain mercy: confession & forsaking. Confession is declaring it to God – but how do we forsake?
Let’s go to Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary:
Forsake
FORSA’KE, verb transitive preterit tense forsook; participle passiveforsaken. See Seek .]
1. To quit or leave entirely; to desert; to abandon; to depart from. Friends and flatterers forsake us in adversity.
Forsake the foolish, and live. Proverbs 9:6.
2. To abandon; to renounce; to reject.
If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments – Psalms 89:30.
Cease from anger, and forsake wrath. Psalms 37:8.
3. To leave; to withdraw from; to fail. In anger, the color forsakes the cheeks. In severe trials, let not fortitude forsake you.
4. In scripture, God forsakes his people, when he withdraws his aid, or the light of his countenance.
Forsaking is not just abandoning – we must leave our sin, and cleave to God!
Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.
Isaiah 55:7
