Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

— James 5:16

None of us likes to confess sin. The first step in confession is to acknowledge that we have done something wrong. That doesn’t make us feel very good about ourselves. But we must confess our sins, even if they are only sinful thoughts.Confessing our sinful thoughts is not a natural practice. We might think that if we haven’t acted on sinful things we have thought about, why bother? We may tell ourselves that what we think doesn’t really matter, but it does. All seven of the deadly sins are based in our thoughts: envy, greed, gluttony, sloth, anger, lust, and pride. These deadly thoughts are the fertile soil from which sins of word and deed can sprout and grow.We tend to think that since they are only thoughts, they don’t need to be confessed. We might even think that we have our problem under control— or soon will. We would much rather manage our problems than confess our sins.But we need to confess our sinful thoughts, not just manage them. And if we are fortunate enough to have good Christian friends with whom we can confess our thoughts, we should talk with them. We need to admit that we cannot conquer sin on our own. We need the power of God’s Spirit to free us from sin and evil. If we wish to be like Christ, we need God’s Spirit to cleanse our thoughts.

O God, confession is hard. We would rather be in charge of our thoughts. But help us to confess to you. Give us the courage and humility we need to confess our sins. Amen.