A Prayer about Confessing Our Sins

Therefore 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

Forgiving Father,

I recently read Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s exhortation 

to confess our sins to a brother or sister in Christ.* 

While we don’t want to make the mistake 

of thinking that we must confess our sins to another person 

in order to be forgiven, 

and while we don’t believe that any human 

has the authority of Christ to forgive us our sins, 

we do need to recognize that confession of our sins, 

sometimes to another human being, 

is crucial to living in the “freedom for which Christ set us free” (Gal. 5:1).

Show us, Father, if we are lying to ourselves 

when we only confess sins privately to you; 

show us if we need to take a sin out of the darkness 

into the light of gracious fellowship, 

a few close friends, 

or a trusted ministry leader, 

who can remind us of the hope your Word offers

about sin, temptation, and forgiveness. 

Help us not to “conceal our transgressions” 

but to “confess” them and “forsake them” (Proverbs 28:13). 

As we confess our sins, 

may we remember and believe 

that you are “faithful and just to forgive our sins 

and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

In Jesus’ forgiving name. Amen. 

This prayer inspired by Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book, Life Together.