Two Vital Confessions

Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth on their heads. . . . And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day; for another quarter of it they made confession and worshiped the Lord their God. . . .  
“Stand up and bless the Lord your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise. You are the Lord, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. . . .  And you have kept your promise, for you are righteous. And you saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and heard their cry at the Red Sea, and performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants and all the people of his land. . . .  And you divided the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on dry land, and you cast their pursuers into the depths. . . .  and spoke with them from heaven and gave them right rules and true laws, good statutes and commandments. . . . But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments. They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them. . . .  but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them. . . . 

The prayer goes on, praising God for His care and confessing the many times of blessing as well as, “Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you and cast your law behind their back and killed your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to you, and they committed great blasphemies. Therefore you gave them into the hand of their enemies, who made them suffer. And in the time of their suffering they cried out to you and you heard them from heaven, and according to your great mercies you gave them saviors who saved them from the hand of their enemies. But after they had rest they did evil again before you, and you abandoned them to the hand of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them. Yet when they turned and cried to you, you heard from heaven, and many times you delivered them according to your mercies.”

God warned them many times in many years, “Yet they would not give ear. Therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands. Nevertheless, in your great mercies you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful God. Now, therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love. . . . Yet you have been righteous in all that has come upon us, for you have dealt faithfully and we have acted wickedly.” (Nehemiah 9:1–38)

The prayer confesses the goodness of God along with the sins of the people. Why do that? My sins can depress me to the point of feeling abandoned and hopeless. The wonder of God's faithful forgiveness brings balance to the equation. If confess my sin but fail to confess Him, depression and discouragement set in, putting focus on me rather than where it should be.

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. (Isaiah 26:3)

Not only a mind at rest, putting my focus on God makes my ears more apt to listen and my heart more ready to obey.

Jesus, this world is filled with distractions. Some of them seem harmless, the chores of each day and and other responsibilities. Yet I notice that if my mind drifts aways, so also do my abilities to obey You. Praising You and thinking of You makes a difference in my ability to thread a needle, put away dishes, follow a recipe. That prayer had it right — confessing all sin and weakness is good, yet confessing Your goodness and power is vital to help me live for You.