Confidence to approach God

1 John 3:20-21 (NLT)
20 Even if we feel guilty, God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if we don’t feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence. 22 And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him.

The apostle writes about when we reflect upon ourselves and we find a court of conviction that passes judgment on our relationship with God. This reflection acts as witness, judge, and executioner. We will either accuse ourselves or excuse ourselves. We will condemn the actions we have taken or we will justify them. Our conscience is a spotlight showing our guilt. However, God already knows our guilt and he wants us to come to Him in bold confidence knowing that He will forgive whatever we confess to him.

Robert Webber writes in his book, Who Gets to Narrate the World, he was traveling on a plane reading Christian material. A man sitting next to him from an Eastern culture asked if he was a religious man. The man responded he was religious also. Robert asked him to sum up his belief in one sentence and the man said, “We all are a part of the problem, and we are all part of the solution. After talking for a bit Robert asked the man if he would like to hear a one-liner to sum up Christianity and man responded he would. Robert said this, “We all are a part of the problem, but there is only one man who is the solution and His name is Jesus Christ.”

God sent His son Jesus to die for our sin. God wants us to confess that sin to Him. However, God does not want us to carry around a burden of guilt for that sin. Instead God wants us to remember He already knows our sin and that is why He gave up His Son Jesus. When guilt comes upon us for sin it is a reminder of our sin, but we should not let that guilt hold us down. We should approach God in confidence knowing He forgives us and reachs out to us in love.