Part 1 of this series introduced the importance of confession and repentance or penitence as one of our regular prayer habits. In this article, we will explore why we should confess our sins. Sin can create all kinds of havoc in our lives. Even if we claim to be a man or woman after God’s own heart, sin can catch us off-guard, creating problems in our lives that may snowball for a long time after the initial act. Perhaps nobody knew that better than King David, who wrote some of the Bible’s great penitential psalms, including Psalm 51 (which headlined the previous article) and Psalm 32 (to be cited in a few paragraphs).

Before writing Psalm 51, David had compounded sin upon sin: lustfully checking out his neighbor’s wife (Bathsheba, who was married to one of his highest-ranking army officers); committing adultery with her; and then, to hide his sin when she got pregnant, having her husband killed. Psalm 51 recounts his confession and appeal for forgiveness. God responded with grace, compassion, mercy, and forgiveness to David’s sincere confession and repentance.

There are several reasons why we should seriously confront the sin in our lives while praying. First, sin harms us.

“For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away
 through my groaning all day long.
For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
 my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.
I acknowledged my sin to you,
 and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’
 and you forgave the iniquity of my sin” (Psalms 32:3-5; all Scripture quotations are from the English Standard Version).

Sin may harm us physically. Psalms 32:3 sounds like it could be speaking of a physical ailment related to David’s sin. Even if this particular passage is not describing a medical condition (psalms are poetry and, as such, often use symbolic or exaggerated language that should not be taken literally), other Bible passages also connect sin with physical harm. James 5 connects the dots between sin, sickness, confession, forgiveness, and healing:

“Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (James 5:14-16).

At times, sickness can be directly linked to sin: sexually transmitted diseases caused by sex outside marriage; physical damage caused by drug or alcohol abuse; health conditions caused by gluttony; and so on. Even if Psalms 32 is not speaking of an actual illness, it reveals that David suffered physical discomfort caused by his sin. In The Problem of Pain, C. S. Lewis wrote, “Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

David’s discomfort could have come from another way sin harms us: It may afflict you emotionally, leading to psychosomatic physical discomfort. (“Psychosomatic” refers to a physical pain or ailment whose roots are psychological or emotional, such as when emotional stress causes medical problems; contrary to what many people think, it does not mean that “it’s all in your head.”) Guilt, shame, bitterness, anger, depression, etc., can all linger and fester when we do not deal with our sins. We might become afraid that our sins will be discovered by others. Anxiety can grow into full clinical depression. In extreme cases, a person’s guilt and depression can lead to suicide. Sin exacts a high toll.

Sin will also affect our relationships with others. Broken homes, shattered relationships, unforgiveness, grudges, and distrust can continue to cause chaos in our lives long after the act that created conflict. In King David’s case, God forgave his sins with Bathsheba, but the consequences continued. The first baby that Bathsheba bore for him died. Sibling conflict tore his family apart, and one of his sons eventually tried to overthrow him. David healed, but his soul bore the scars. The same will be true for us if we wait too long to confess our sins and repent.

Last, but certainly not least, sin affects our relationship with God. Even though we may still be saved, and God is always ready to forgive and restore us, sin creates a barrier in our relationship with God. We will always miss out on God’s best blessings for our lives when we choose sin over Him.

We might be tempted to think that we can skip over confession during our prayers. After all, aren’t we secure in Christ? Hasn’t He already forgiven us? Why can’t we just forget about that stuff that hurts our egos so that we can get on to the parts of prayer that we like? After all, don’t we have better things to do with our time? As we have seen, though, sin hurts us. We need to confront it and pray for forgiveness, repentance, and deliverance. In the final article in this series, we will discuss how to include confession and repentance in our daily prayers.

Copyright © 2025 Michael E. Lynch. All rights reserved.