We all sin and on bad days we sin a lot. As Christians we want to overcome the power of sin in our life and move towards holiness. We want to keep growing so that we are not only living righteously but we are becoming righteous on the inside, in our heart, and in our character.

There are at least a dozen different ingredients that we will need to practice if we are going to overcome the power of sin to control our lives. Those different steps, practices, disciplines are all very important in our pursuit of holiness, but I believe that the most powerful and important is transparent self-examination and confession of our sin. The big barrier to overcoming sin habits that we hate in ourselves is the proneness to excuse, blame, and ignore the things we do that are wrong. We automatically hide and defend ourselves from anything that would make us feel shame or a sense of failure, we do it without thinking and we do it quickly.

Psalms 32:1-5 How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit! When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away Through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I did not hide; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”; And You forgave the guilt of my sin.

For me the most effective way to accurately reflect on who I am and what I do and why I do it is in journaling. I journal about three times each week. I just start writing about my day with the goal of discovering myself and as I write my brain and memory kick in and I start remembering events, motives, thoughts, and sins. As I write I become like a third person examining me, my motives, my thoughts, my actions and I become almost ruthless in my pursuit of all the junk in me.

As I discover it, I own it, no excuses, blaming, or making light of any sin, I own it, to the max, I sinned. I confess my sin, I repent of my sin, and I commit to the Lord that I will not do it again. I may do it again, but in making the commitment, I sin less and less and that is what I want and that is what God wants.