Quotes about Confession

Our sins defeat us unless we are willing to recognize them, confess them, and so become healed and whole and holy -- not qualified, mind you; just holy.

Each person must acknowledge the sins of which he himself is guilty.

In not granting an answer, the Father tells us that there is something wrong in our praying. He wants to teach us to discover it and confess it; He wants to educate us about true believing and prevailing prayer. He will only attain His objective when He brings us to see that we are to blame for the withholding of the answer - our aim, or our faith, or our life is not what it should be.

Only what is really confessed is really forgiven.

Let there be the deep confession of our inability to bring God the worship that is pleasing to Him; the childlike teachableness that waits on Him to instruct us; the simple faith that yields itself to the breathing of the Spirit.

If conscience is to do its work and the contrite heart is to feel its proper remorse, it is necessary for each individual to confess his sin by name. The confession must be intensely personal. In a meeting of ministers, probably no single sin should be acknowledged with deeper shame than the sin of prayerlessness. Each one of us needs to confess that we are guilty of this.

God, I thank thee, I am not as the rest of men, or even as this publican. It is in that which is just cause for thanksgiving, it is in the very thanksgiving which we render to God, it may be in the very confession that God has done it all, that self finds its cause of complacency. Yes, even when in the temple the language of penitence and trust in God's mercy alone is heard, the Pharisee may take up the note of praise, and in thanking God be congratulating himself.

Sin which is not confessed is also not combated

First, since by God's command all the saints daily ask for their sins to be forgiven (Matt.6:12), they confess themselves sinners. They do not ask in vain, for the Lord Jesus never bade us ask for something which he would not give us.

Augustine is so wholly with me, that if I wished to write a confession of my faith, I could do so with all fullness and satisfaction to myself out of his writings.

The decree is dreadful indeed, I confess.

It does not spoil your happiness to confess your sin. The unhappiness is in not making the confession.