Confession

Unconfessed sin
Acts 19:18-20

As Christians we often rationalize our lack of confession and dismiss its importance, only later to see how much it effects our personal relationship with god. What is it that stops us from confessing our sin?
1) Do we not see the need to do so?
Jms. 5:16-20
This scripture is full of examples as to why it is important to be open and confess.
1) it helps bring healing and allows others to pray for us.
2) it allows ourselves to go to god in prayer as ask for his help and assistance with working through it.
3) it gives us opportunity to help others find their way back to Christ.
As well it helps us make it to heaven.
Prov. 28:13
Here he lets us know when we hide our sin it does not allow us to grow. But if we confess we find mercy and we continue to grow.
Ps. 38:3-4
When reading this what it says to me is that we live a guilty life as long as we do not confess and keep on sinning. The more we allow it to go on the more guilt builds up and we find ourselves more distant from god.

2) we don't see our sin
Jn. 1:5-10
Light shines through darkness. Are our eyes open to see the light and go toward that light. Are you willing to testify about the light and help others seek it as well. Do you recognize the example of the light through others.
Ps. 36:1-4
Do we have a fear of god to understand what happens when we are not open? When you speak what words come out of your mouth. This says he committed himself to a sinful course. To me this means more than just unconfessed sin. It started with unconfessed sin and then lead to the wickedness he was expressing.
Do we even recognize our sin as sin. Sometimes I feel like we can dismiss it and think it is no big deal cause it may be something so small that to us it would not matter to confess. Sometimes we have been doing it so long and we don't want to confess yet again the same sin. Sometimes we convince ourselves well I can just tell god and that would be fine. Sometimes we know it to be sin and water it down, or don't confess at all cause of fear of losing friends or because we are embarrassed about what it is.
All of these no matter what form it may be separates us from god and from others. For me the way I see this is that if I am not confessing daily I am falling short of gods glory. As well I am being dishonest to the ones god has put in my life to help me get through these struggles. Never realizing how much it was messing up my walk with god. Cause when we hide sin or only confess to our comfort level then we are always on guard to make sure people don't find out. So we act different in fellowship and people sense that is wrong. Then there were certain things I did that I did not think were sin and so never said anything about it. Those are the ones that caught up to me.

3) We're to concerned with what people think: we are embarrassed and ashamed to confess to more than just God. This is not because we are being more spiritual but because we don't want to fear what another person would say or think if we share our ugliest sins with them.
Gal. 1:10
Are we trying to win the approval of men or of God? Are we trying to please men instead of God. If this is the case how can we be true servants of God.
How does this scripture relate to your own reluctance to confess?
For me I still battle from time to time what will people think of me. However in the huge scheme of things I realize and know it is really about being right with God, and if someone has issues or negative things to think or say than that falls back on them not me. And in That they need to examine their own heart. My thing is this, we all have sin, it ain't pretty, but what makes it uglier is not confessing it. Because the ugliest sin only pulls us away from God when it is not confessed. The burden of sin cause us to feel guilty, closes us to other Christians, blocks the opportunity for repentance, we doubt the sincerity of others, and we lose the heart of humility.
One thing I will say here is this and this is something I do not compromise on EVER I Cor. 11:23-29 every Sunday before I leave for service or while I am praying I examine my heart. If there is anything in there that has not been confessed or would cause me to reap judgement and dishonor God I search someone out at church that knows me and confess. If I do not find someone or the opportunity does not present itself than I WILL NOT take communion. I have had several people approach me and thank me for the fact that they have seen me pass on communion and it helped them with their own heart. This is an area for me personally that is not compromised. It is important we examine our hearts before partaking of the gift of being united with Christ.

Here are several more scriptures for you to study out on your own.
Rms. 1:28-32
Gal. 5:19-21
Ephes. 4:25-32
Ephes. 5:3-5
Col. 3:5-9
I Tim. 3:1-5
I pet. 2:1
Rev. 21:8

I encourage each of us to take this to heart and to find a sister who we know and one who will give advice, and help us to work through whatever it is that we have not been open about.