There comes a moment when pretending simply stops working. The guilt is too heavy, the memories too sharp, the distance from God too real. In that place, today’s verse meets us: it speaks of confessing our sins and of a God who is both faithful and just, ready to forgive and to cleanse. It’s not a promise for people who have it all together; it’s a promise for people who are done hiding and ready to step into the light they’ve been avoiding.

Stepping Out of the Shadows

Confession is not about informing God of something He doesn’t know; it’s about finally agreeing with what He has already seen. When we admit our sin, we stop arguing, justifying, minimizing, and blaming. We call sin what God calls it. This is why Scripture says, “He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy” (Proverbs 28:13). Hiding keeps us stuck; honesty opens the door to mercy.

There is such freedom when we stop managing our image and start dealing with our hearts. David experienced this and wrote, “Then I acknowledged my sin to You and did not hide my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,’ and You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah” (Psalm 32:5). Our Lord invites us out of the shadows, not to shame us, but to heal us. Confession is not the end of your story; it is the beginning of God’s restoration.

Faithful and Just: The Cross Behind the Promise

The promise of 1 John 1:9 is not sentimental; it is anchored in the cross. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). God is not turning a blind eye; He is honoring what Jesus already paid for with His blood. His “faithful and just” forgiveness is rooted in the fact that His Son bore the full penalty our sins deserved. The debt has been paid; to forgive us is now an act of holy justice as well as tender mercy.

This means you never have to wonder if God is in the mood to forgive you today. His faithfulness does not fluctuate with your feelings or performance. “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). When you come to Him in humble confession, you are not twisting His arm; you are simply receiving what Christ has already secured for you.

Clean to Walk, Not Just to Breathe

Forgiveness is not just a sigh of relief; it is a new way to live. God does not merely cancel guilt; He cleanses and transforms. “Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they shall become like wool” (Isaiah 1:18). Cleansed people don’t have to live like condemned people. “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). The stain is gone; you can get up and walk in the light.

And this cleansing is not only vertical—between you and God—but often horizontal as well. James urges us, “Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed” (James 5:16). As we live honestly before God and trusted brothers and sisters, the grip of sin loosens and real healing begins. Today, don’t just quietly feel forgiven; step forward as someone washed, restored, and ready to obey.

Lord Jesus, thank You for being faithful and just to forgive and cleanse me. Today, give me the courage to confess honestly, receive Your cleansing completely, and walk in the light in every area of my life.

God's Word says that a faithful and wise steward gives the people their meat in due season. Some people preach the Bible all right, and you cannot deny that. But they go to the Bible as you would to a medical book to find out what you should prescribe. But instead of prescribing to suit each patient, they just prescribe for everybody at one time. When a preacher is not preaching to a given situation, it is like givng medicine to people indiscriminately. That approach is not particularly fitted for teaching the Word of God. Even though it may be faithful and true, without any regard to the current situation, it is like teaching the multiplication table. The New Testament epistles were written to specific conditions, as were the seven letters of Revelation. Particular situations developed, and then the man of God wrote to these particular people. The seven letters found in Revelation were to particular churches, having regard to the needs of those churches. It was the same with the prophets of the Old Testament. No prophet went into an ivory tower, settled down to relax, read deeply awhile, took out a pen and said, "Now, I'm going to write a book of prophecy." They did not do it that way. They wrote to the need, to the situation. They aimed their arrows at a target. When God is speaking to a particular situation the power of the Holy Spirit is present and active. When David sinned, Nathan the prophet came to him and told a little parable. When David gave his judgment of what to do with the sinful man, Nathan pointed his finger at the king and said, "You are the man" (2 Samuel 12:7a). Immediately David threw off his crown and his robe, dropped his scepter, fell on his knees and repented before God. That was a particular situation. When we are talking to a specific situation the sheep are separated from the goats, the veil is removed and the judgment begins.

Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice: let Thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. - Psalm 130:1-2

The depths are the place for us all. Every man has to go down there, if he take the place that belongs to him. Unless you have cried to God out of these depths, you have never cried to Him at all. Unless you come to Him as a penitent, sinful man, with the consciousness of transgression awakened within you, your prayers are shallow. The beginning of all true personal religion lies in the sense of my own sin and my lost condition. Why, the difference between the tepid, superficial religion, that so many have, and the true thing consists a great deal more in this than in anything else- that in the one case a sense of sin has been awakened, and in the other it has not. I believe, for my part, that as far as creed is concerned, the reason of the larger number of the misapprehensions and waterings-down of the full-toned Christian truth which we see around us comes from this, that men have not appreciated the importance, as a factor in their theology, of the doctrine of sin. And so far as practice is concerned, one main reason why the religion that prevails is such a poor, flabby, impotent thing is the same. If a man does not think much about sin, he does not think much about a Divine Saviour. Wherever you find practically men and women with a Christianity that lies very lightly upon them, that does not impel them to any acts of service and devotion, that seldom breaks out into any heroisms of self-surrender, and never rises into the heights of communion with God, depend upon it that the roots of it are to be found here, that the man has never been down there into the pit, and never sent his voice up from it as some man that had tumbled down a coal pit might fling a despairing voice up to the surface, in the hope that somebody stumbling past the mouth of it might hear the cry. "Out of the depths" he has not cried unto God.

You want nothing more than a cry to get you out of the depths. If out of the depths you cry, you will cry yourself out of the depths. Here is a man at the foot of a cliff that rises beetling like a black wall behind him; the sea in front; the bare, upright rock at his back; not a foothold for a mouse between the tide at the bottom and the grass at the top there. What is he going to do? There is only one thing - he can shout. Perchance somebody will hear him; a rope may come dangling down in front of him: and, if he has got nerve, he may shut his eyes and make a jump and catch it. There is no way for you up out of the pit but to cry to God, and that will bring a rope down; nay, rather, the rope is there, - your grasping the rope and your cry are one. "Ask, and ye shall receive." God has let down the fulness of His forgiving love in Jesus Christ, and all that we need is the call, which is likewise faith, which accepts while it desires, and desires in its acceptance; and then we are lifted up there " out of the horrible pit and the miry clay, and our feet are set upon a rock, and our goings established."