Day 6: Confession Prayer, Part 1 

We’ve already been praying a prayer of confession with our Jesus Prayer. If you have been following along the prayer prompts and prayerwork in this booklet, then you have been confessing your need of God’s mercy, because you’re a sinner. You’ve said this prayer at various times during the day, and every time your alarm has gone off for a few days now. Now let us make the confession prayer more specific. 

Confession occurs when we agree with what God says.[1] When we profess our faith in Christ—acknowledge that He is Lord, that is one kind of confession. When we acknowledge our sin before God that is another kind of confession. When we praise God in worship that is another type of confession. 

For a lot of people, the only time they have ever heard the word, confession, is in reference to someone going into a confessional booth and confessing their sins to a priest of their church. There is a time and place to confess to someone else your sins, but in today’s prayerwork, we will be confessing to God (and throwing in a little petition prayer, too). 

Prayerwork: For the last five days, you’ve been growing the habit of prayer. Don’t stop now! Keep setting your alarm and praying. And keep using your breath prayer, turning to God’s mercy every time you think about praying. Keep reading some chapters out of the book of Psalms and underlining some lines you might use for prayer every day. 

Now let’s stack another prayer on top of our daily prayers: a prayer of confession. We are going to confess that we are not God: we cannot be everywhere at once, we cannot please everyone, and we do not have all the answers. 

Imagine God, the Father, stooping down and smiling with His face toward you, listening and ready to answer your prayer. Then confess to Him and ask Him to help by using this prayer: 

“Our Father in heaven, I confess to you that I am not You. You are everywhere and know all things and have perfect wisdom. I do not. Help me to trust that you are working all things with your wisdom to shape my character to look like Christ.”