The Discipline of Prayer through confession

Deuteronomy 6:4-9

      

 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lordyour God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

  In addition to practicing prayers of praise, thanksgiving, and petition, we will add the prayer of confession. The Bible tells us that 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). We also see many examples in the Psalm and Prophets and even many narrative stories of confession - not to mention Jesus modeled it in The Lord's Prayer as He was teaching His disciples how they ought to pray.

   The Bible teaches that Christ died once for all. He has forgiven all my sins, so why do I need to pray prayers of confession if those sins are already forgiven? It is important to teach our children that our words often lead our heart to do the right thing. When we confess our sins audibly to God daily, we are repenting and confirming that we are not able to save ourselves. It is utter dependence on God. These words can have a great impact on our hearts and actions as we seek to show and teach our children a life that puts God first. A prayer of confession recognizes that our sin is serious and against a holy God. In our home, I have often witnessed that the confessing and asking God for forgiveness for a particular sin is what frees the child from guilt and allows them to continue on in joy.

   I will not lie, confession is hard. Saying the same thing about my sin that God says about it is humbling. It takes time... I find this is the biggest obstacle for me. Stopping to pray with my children as I train them in righteousness feels highly inconvenient at times, doesn't it? It may mean that those last few dishes have to wait or that the den does not get vacuumed, or that the sink doesn't get wiped down. But when I think about teaching them the value of the eternal, the dishes and my desire for a clean home or whatever the agenda is doesn't seem so important anymore. Deuteronomy says to teach  our children diligently, and this would also apply to us modeling and training them in confession.

  In our home, confession usually is a separate prayer at a separate time after a sin. One of the things I find most beautiful about being a Protestant and confession is that Jesus IS my Great High Priest. I do not have to go to anyone else to get through to God. I can confess and teach my children to confess directly to God. What a beautiful and wonderful thing to know and put into practice! We don't have to wait and go to a particular person and confession all the sins that have happened since we last confessed - we can right away go straight to the throne of grace and confess our sin and praise God for His unfailing love and forgiveness. What a gift!

  A few things about confession:

• Encourage your children to be specific (make sure to include the words of the specific situation that happened)
• Give your children the words to say - confession is humbling and hard
• Include the Gospel in your prayer with your child ... EVERY TIME. I realize this seems tedious, but I do think it is important and helpful to thank God for the perfect and obedient life of Jesus through His death. We try to mention the death, resurrection and the forgiveness of sins through Jesus in all of our confessional prayers. 

 A prayer might look/include something like this for a specific situation: 

      God, I hit my brother and disobeyed my mommy and I know from your true Word that is sin. I know that you are holy and that my sin is against you. My sin shows me that I cannot save myself and that I need your help. Thank you for sending the perfect helper for me in Jesus. Thank you that Jesus obeyed perfectly. Thank you that He died so that I can live and be forgiven. Thank you, God that your mercy is more than my sin. Thank you that you are patient and kind and quick to forgive. Please have the Holy Spirit help me to do right and to be kind to my brother and obey my mommy....

   A few other practical things to foster confession 

• Model confession with one another in your home. This will make prayers of confession less awkward and much more of a culture in your home 
• Model forgiveness in your home - be quick to forgive, as God is
• Memorize confessional Psalms or read a confessional Psalm regularly. 

             We quote Psalm 103 nearly every day. One of the reasons I love this Psalm so much is that it has praise and thanksgiving and so many aspects of God's character dealing with our sin and His forgiveness. When I am overwhelmed by guilt or see a child struggling, we talk about how far God has removed our transgressions from us. I also open up the Bible each day and have the children listen as I read a verse of confession to them from one of the Psalms. I then briefly remind them what a privilege it is that we can confess our sins to God, knowing that He will forgive us! 

• Sings songs of confession at home. Some of our favorites are below

• Find a church or encourage your church to follow the whole Gospel in their order of worship. One of the things you can look for is 1. Singing songs of confession (in addition to songs of praise, thanksgiving, petition, and commitment) and 2. Reading and participating in the practice of corporate confession. This is often the congregation reading a general confession together of our falling short of God and His character and ways and our need for forgiveness. It is then followed by an assurance of pardon, meaning that the pastor assures us corporately from  Scripture that God is merciful and our sins are forgiven. 

 Reading/Singing Confessional Psalms and hymns

       Remember that the book of Psalms is the hymnal of the Bible, and it does include laments or confessions which indicates that we should be singing laments and confessions.

• Psalm 6, 32, 38
• Psalm 51
• Psalm 102
• Psalm 103 (assures us of forgiveness)
• Psalm 130
• Psalm 143

Here are some of our favorite songs of confession. Most have choruses or parts that repeat that make it easy for children.  I have linked to a few. 

• Help My Unbelief 
• From the Depths of Woe
• His Mercy is More
• God be Merciful to Me (Psalm 51)
• Satisfied
• I Need Thee Every Hour
• Come Ye Sinners
• Depth of Mercy
• And Can it Be
• Come Thou Fount
• There is a Fountain 

So to wrap it all up - continue with your discipline of the one minute of praise and one minute of thanksgiving. Continue asking your children for one thing to praise God for, thank God for, and ask Him for.  Continue with petitioning Him for specific things with your children. And of course, add confession this week. Pick one Psalm to read each day or memorize with your children and pick one song to learn and sing this week.