Psalms 51:1-2 Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

One of the significant blessings of being a Christian, being a child of God, and being in His family is the gift of being forgiven. We are forgiven legally of all of our sins, past sins, and present sins when we first trusted Christ as our savior, and as a result, our sins were paid for by Jesus , so we are legally God’s child and headed for heaven. This is a one-time deal. But there is also the relational sins that we commit probably daily. These sins need to be forgiven by God on an on going basis. It is like my marriage. When I say or do things that hurt Patty our relationship is damaged, but if I go back and figure out what I did, and confess it to her, asking her to forgive me, she does, and our relationship is restored. I can also confess my sins to God, and he will forgive me, and I will have a good relationship with Him. I examine my life for sin and confess them every night. I want to keep short accounts with God. Self-examination and confession of our sins regularly keeps our conscience tender and our relationship with God strong. It is a discipline because we don’t like to do this,we would rather just ignore our sins and hope that it is no big deal. That is a bad idea.