In church we often talk a great deal about forgiveness and God's grace- and for good reason! The only way to know God;s complete and total forgiveness is through God's Son, Jesus Christ and his work on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin.

But what's the path to receiving forgiveness? We don't often talk about the practice of confession, which is vital to how we experience God's grace. It's one thing to know the doctrines of the atonement and justification--that God has declared sinners righteous by virtue of Christ's work--but it's quite another to walk down the path of shame, guilt, and utter anguish over having offended a holy and righteous God. Only when we are brought to despair can we see the light that Christ brings.

Psalm 32 offers a clear picture of the soul-sickness that we experience when we have unconfessed sin in our lives. We can hide sin from others, but we cannot hide it from God- and the guilt we feel is God's ordained mechanism to drive us back to him.

Why do we hesitate to confess our sin to God, even though we know as Christians we are forgiven?

1. We do not see our sin as "our personal responsibility". It's easy to talk about sin in a generic sense. Yeah, everyone tells a fib now and then, we all covet our neighbor's possessions. Why is my sin different than any one else's? But there's the problem. All our sins are equally heinous before God- and we are each guilty of them.

2. We don't believe God will forgive our sin. Sometimes we have sinned so greatly that we doubt God could ever forgive "that". Here we give ourselves too much credit. It's actually a form of idolatry. If God forgives all sin, then by confessing we would lose our self appointed "Bad to the Bone" title. Ah, the death of self- what a travesty.

3. We don't confess our sins because we think the constant pain of not confessing is less than the pain of a clean break. This is the "I'll just live with it" approach. But sooner or later, the silent treatment with God doesn't work. His hand of discipline will be "heavy upon us" until we are in anguish.

4. We don't confess to God because we are not forced to confess to others. We assume that since no one else knows, I don't have to tell God. Or simply put, it's always easier to tell someone "It's between me and the Lord" rather than stand up and confess in front of others. Although the line, "It's between me and the Lord" usually is code for, "I'm ignoring this sin in my life, and don't bring it up again."

There are many more reasons we resist confession. Why do you think Christians avoid it? Let me know your thoughts.