“We acknowledge our wickedness oh Lord and the inequity of our fathers for we have sinned against you.”
– Jeremiah 14:20
Jeremiah 14:20 is such a key verse, moment, reality not just in the Book of Jeremiah. But really a key moment in reality all throughout the Old Testament and New Testament of the Bible.
Jeremiah 14:20 Reminds Us to Confess Our Sins
All throughout our lives, there must be continual frequent moments of confession, of sin before God, of stopping and saying, “We acknowledge our wickedness, oh God before you. We have sinned against you.” And then to be specific, when I think about 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins”, it’s not just our sinfulness in general, although that’s a reality.
The whole picture there’s confessing specific sins, ways we have sinned against God, acknowledging our wickedness before God. We need to have regular times, like daily throughout the day, times where we’re just stopping and saying, “God I’ve acted wickedly in this way or that way. God I’ve sinned against you in this way or that way.”
Christians must repent, confessing to God how we have sinned against Him. He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us.
Is Confession In Our Routine?
So is confession a regular part of your Christian routine? Specific confession of sin, specific acknowledging of wickedness to use the words here in Jeremiah 14:20, saying “God I have sinned against you in this way.” Even corporately in the church together saying, “God we have sinned against you in this way.”
This should be a part of the church life. Corporate confession like that. So let me lead us in prayer, but I want to invite you to kind of fill in the blanks, whether as we pray right now or after this podcast episode is over, maybe just spend some extra time and just specifically confess sin in your life, in your need for grace.
Jeremiah 14:20 Leads Us to Pray For Grace
So, God we say to you, we acknowledge our wickedness. We have sinned against you in a variety of ways. A variety of ways that are coming to my mind right now, and I’ll spend time verbalizing before you, even right after this is over.
And God I pray that you would give grace for others to do the same. God, search our hearts, uncover our sin that we might see it as you see it, we might acknowledge it as you acknowledge it. And God in the process that we might find your mercy and your grace just covering over us, you would help us to be reconciled, restored to you, to grow in you in greater and greater ways than we ever have, through confession of our sin. So help us to see sin in our lives, the way you see sin in our lives and help us turn from it with repentant hearts. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
