During my devotions this week, I have been reflecting on my attitude and practice in prayer. One habit I notice in myself is a tendency to confess the same category of sin over and over--without really reflecting on individual instances of sin.
It's always safe to confess that I am prideful, selfish, or impatient. But it doesn't do me much good just to say that I'm prone to sin in those ways. The exercise becomes repetitive and insincere, a substitute for genuine personal reflection and confession of individual sins I've committed. When I say I'm prideful, I haven't found a practical way to combat that pride. On the other hand, when I confess that "This morning I was impatient with my husband" or pray, "Forgive me my bitterness towards so-and-so," I can recognize specific behaviors and attitudes in myself which I can actually work toward changing. So, my experiment over the past several days has been to focus on actual incidents of sin I can identify. I feel much more genuine confessing those things, more likely to be really convicted of sin, and also more hopeful of being able to address those sins.
Just my "aha!" moment of the week.
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