~ A place to find answers to gnawing spiritual questions ~
Question: My class is doing a study on prayer. We just looked at confession of sin. The question arose as to our sins that we do not remember. The commentary of the book we are using said, "We should thank God for the sins we do not remember. According to His compassion and mercy, God causes us to forget some of the sinful things we do. If we were to recall every sinful thought, word, or deed of everyday, we would be miserable creatures. We cannot confess every sin we've committed, but we should confess any sin we remember." That all sounds good as it lets us off the hook and makes us feel better. Some how, as I began to think about that, it doesn't seem right to me that God would just over look sin because we do not recall it. But then again I am sure there are many sins I commit that go unconfessed because of lack of my own sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. I can't find anything in scripture that would back this commentary up.If you know scripture references that would help us with this, it would be much appreciated.
Answer: I would say, that as you get alone with God in your prayer closet, and get quiet before Him, your natural action is to repent of anything that you have done, and confess it to God. Otherwise you would not feel able to ask anything in prayer, and ask with any kind of faith. If the Spirit of God does not bring anything else to your mind, you should be able to petition Him without a feeling of guilt. I am sure that God is a reasonable God. The Holy Spirit's work is to convict us of sin, and if we come before God in prayer with a sincere desire to do His will, The Spirit will bring to our remembrance anything we need to repent of. If everything is clear in our conscience, we have peace and confidence in our hearts. God has said that He would cast our sins behind His back, and remember them against us no more.
But really, how can we confess sin that we do not remember? However, if later on, we become aware that we have sinned, that is the time to confess and forsake it. Perhaps Leviticus 4:13-14 may be helpful. When the people became aware of the fact that they had sinned, they would offer a sacrifice at the brazen altar. See also verses 27 and 28 of the same chapter. The sacrifices of the Old Testament are a type of Christ and His sacrifice on the cross for us.
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