No one gets it perfectly. Some of my best life lessons have come from my failures. As Paul put it in 1 Corinthians 12, “When I am weak, then I am strong.”
The Christian walk is not easy, and it can seem overwhelming when we consider all that God has called us to as His children. One of Satan’s biggest traps in my life has been an expectation of perfection.
Thankfully, grace and repentance are a part of the good news/gospel message. And part of walking the Christian walk is confessing our sin, as well as our need of forgiveness.
As 1 John 1:5-10 says,
5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.7 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. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
We have a choice: walk in the light or walk in the darkness. Without Christ, we are walking in the darkness. And the choice we make is one of repentance: a 180o turn from walking in darkness to walking in the light. Repentance does not mean that we walk in the light perfectly. It means that we are committed to our choice to always walk toward the Light.
So, what happens after we confess our sins and repent, choosing to walk in the light?