“Do not take it to heart,” says Thomas a Kempis, “if some people think badly of you and say unpleasant things about you. You ought to think worse things of yourself and to believe that no one is weaker than yourself.” That’s an unusual form of encouragement from the writer of the Imitation of Christ. This is Paul’s message in Romans 2: you are much worse than you think. I remember once, after reading 1 John 1:8-9, thinking that I should confess my sins to God. It had been a long time since I’d had a ‘confession session’ with God so I put some time aside. As I sat there, I really struggled to think of anything I needed to confess. At that moment I sensed God saying to me, “You must be joking! Can’t think of anything?!” The reason that I couldn’t think of anything was not because I didn’t have any sin in me. I couldn’t think of anything because, deep down, there were some major issues that I didn’t want to bring out into the open. It was causing a kind of spiritual constipation (excuse the distasteful analogy but I think it is appropriate) and I was suffering for it. I realised that there were things in me that I didn’t want to let go of, that I found too daunting to deal with. I realised that I had deeply repressed these issues. So, I asked God to draw these things out which he did, patiently and slowly. Though it was hard to see these things about myself, it was one of the most wonderful seasons of encountering God’s grace that I can remember.
Spend some time confessing your inner sins to God as he brings them to light.
Read Romans 2:1-16 again along with 1 John 1:5-2:11
