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“The whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”

These words and their context are readily recognizable.  They are also words that name a battle I have fought for as long as I can remember.  How many times have I told “a” truth, but not the whole truth?  How many times have I told a perfectly believable and defensible story that simply was not “nothing but the truth.”

The Spirit prompted me in the direction of Psalm 32 this past week.  My heart and life have been increasingly heavy as of late.  I am finding this to be the direct result of my confessions being something less than the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.  The sins I’ve confessed have already been paid for, but the Spirit is revealing a fuller and deeper truth of the gap between my confessions and the whole truth.  There’s a “residue” that’s left when I stop short in confessing to Jesus.  That “residue” becomes weight in the form of persisting guilt.

I experience guilt when I sin, but the DNA of guilt is unique and wholly separate from the sin itself.  God’s forgiveness is meant to take both away forever.  His desire for me in confessing is that I experience that power.  Both the slate and my conscience are wiped clean.  But when I stop short (of telling Him what He already knows), a residue remains in the quiet center of who I am.  Think of it like windshield wiper blades that are in need of replacing.  They remove the principle part of the precipitation, but do not clear it completely.  The thinnest veneer of water remains and clouds or obscures your vision.

Psalm thirty-two begins…

How joyful is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered!  How joyful is the man the Lord does not charge with sin and in whose spirit is no deceit!
(verses one and two – HCSB)

This is the beauty of where fallen man meets God’s plan for his (or her) sin.  The whole truth and nothing but the truth is confessed.

Here is where my life has been…

When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long.  For day and night Your hand was heavy on me; my strength was drained as in the summer’s heat.
(verses three and four – HCSB)

I believe the silence scripture mentions is both complete and partial (the stopping completely and the stopping short).

But here is the beauty of where God’s working within me is leading me…

Then I acknowledged my sin to You and did not conceal my iniquity.  I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and You took away the guilt of my sin.
(verse five – HCSB)

My sin (and yours) has been paid for.  Father, help me (and us) not to pay interest on a penalty that you’ve already paid.  When we confess our sin, God removes it as far as the east is from the west.  When we confess it wholly, the guilt goes too.  The weight of our sin and our guilt is not ours to bear.  Jesus took it to the cross and bore it in His own body.

Confess wholly — the whole truth, and nothing but — and experience the full power of God’s forgiveness.