I must confess...

I've had to tell people some hard things this week.
Not hard for them to hear, but hard for me to make my mouth say.
Difficult for My heart to allow (because of Pride and Fear).
I'll get back to this later in this post...

I think often of myself as a vessel.  or...maybe a fridgerator is a better example.
And all the little hang-ups and hurts that are absorbed in normal life pile up like garish magnets and clips on the fridge door.  I really feel, and experience that confession wipes those things off.
It's really simple I suppose.  No mind-boggling christian-ish revelation here. lol.  But maybe we mistake simplicity for weakness...

All that to say, my point is simple: It is my growing personal belief that

 CONFESSION is the primary means of initiating holiness,

righteousness, godliness, and other 'ness's.

I am further persuaded that the power of confession (and to the next degree, repentance) is largely untapped in the lives of God-seeking Christians today.  Often times Confession and Repentance seem to just be meer steping-stones to the 'other stuff' of Christianity.  I believe that confession is so powerful and effective, that it is to be the backbone of a separated, spiritual lifestyle, in the midst of a carnal, physical world.  Confession is intimated linked to the power and the righteousness of Christ. Exhibit A:

James 5:15

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

Confession and power are associated in the same verse.  I don't know, something to think about...

Let me further elaborate. Those little things that pile up are, furthermore, like weeds. If you don't remove the root, or if you ignore the growing issue, sooner than you could have imagined...it overwhelms the scenery.

And confession can be the hand-trowel, or the bulldozer (depending on the strength of your weed problem) you need to redecorate...so-to-speak. Breaking from the worldly parellels, I believe Confession, like much of our God-given activities has far-reaching consequences outside of just the life of the confessor.
Exhibit B:

Daniel 9:20-21
While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and making my request to the LORD my God for his holy hill-

While I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice.

Think about the link between confession and the visitation (and really all that followed).
My personal confessions have largely been in relation to bitterness. 

Bitterness is all about holding on.  Confession is all about letting go. 

How much are we holding onto that keeps us from walking in the freedom and power God desires to give us?

I'm going to hack the post off here, and end in simply stating:
I think power of confession is largely overlooked.

The Heart-Wrenching Treachery of Israel

Jeremiah 1-5

(4:19) "Oh, my anguish, my anguish!  I writhe in pain."

This morning I was struck, bitterly struck, by the first chapters of Jeremiah.  Let me explain.
(basic summary: Israel was the favored child of God, they gave up that position to seek fake gods)

When I understand first and foremost, the intense power it took to create me...The vast insight and creativity to form me...The sheer greatness of the act of my creation...And the diligent, tender care with which God oversees his people...All the words of God begin to come into focus much more clearly.
(2:7a) I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and rich produce...
(2:21a) I had planted you like a choice vine of sound a reliable stock...

Having taken that knowledge of my inception, it is a piercing blow to my heart, reading the first chapters of Jeremiah.  I can empathize with the fierce anger that burns within God at seeing his people turn from Him.  It is as if they, ignoring His presence in the room, turn and give credit of their blessed circumstances to another.  How rude! How horrible! How traitorous!  To further condemn them in their acts of disloyalty, it's not just any other they turn to, but one who is so far below the stature of God! It would be like thanking the fly in the window on the morning of December 25th for all the Christmas gifts you receive!
It is a preposterous thought, an insane and ridiculous notion, but Israel has committed this sin again and again!
(2:11-12) Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But my people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols.  Be appalled at this, O heavens, and shudder with great horror," declares the Lord.
(2:27a) They say to wood, 'You are my father,' and to stone, 'You gave me birth.'
(2:19b) Consider then and realize how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the Lord your God and have no awe of me," declares the Lord, the Lord almighty.

Having given credit where it is NOT due, they were comfortable in this sin.  They refused to acknowledge wrong-doing.  They stayed in their wickedness, they settled in, they made a home there.
(2:25b) ...But you said, 'It's no use! I love foreign gods, and I must go after them.'

The time came, however, when things turned sour.  Their childish ignorance turned to childish tantrums.  They wanted God to save them, console and comfort them, just like old times.  Israel raged against God, they ignorantly forgot their wayward lives, their rebellious history of stinking sin.  They were blind as moles...Content to play in the dirt till it suited them no longer.  They pitied themselves, crying out for saving; wailing, turning bitter and casting accusations upon their God.
(2:27b) ...yet when they are in trouble, they say, 'Come and save us!'
(2:29) "Why do you bring charges against me?  You have all rebelled against me," declares the Lord.

Listen to how God sees the His beloved acting...
(2:23b-24) You are a swift she-camel running here and there, a wild donkey accustomed to the desert, sniffing the wind in her craving---in her heat who can restrain her?  Any males that pursue her need not tire themselves; at mating time they will find her.
(2:33) How skilled you are at pursuing love!  Even the worst of women can learn from your ways.
(3:2b) Is there any place where you have not been ravished?
(3:2c) By the roadside you sat waiting for lovers...
(3:3b) Yet you have the brazen look of a prostitute; you refuse to blush with shame.

Over and over again, Israel is described as the most heinous of philanderers, the most putrid of whores...
And then He says, "Return to me."  God just decides to redeem them.  They turn from their idols and repent.  They weep and cry out in anguished repentance, and God takes them back.
(3:12) ..."Return, faithless Israel,' declares the Lord, 'I will frown on you no longer, for I am merciful,' declares the Lord, 'I will not be angry forever...
During this process of calling them back to Him, he gives promises of safety, prosperity, and righteousness.

Israel is willfully disrepectful and unfaithful, and God leaves them to the just reward of their sins (for a time).  The story ends, though, with salvation, redemption, a returning to their first love: God.
He is a righteous judge and an extreme lover.
It is the most tremendous of logical paradoxes: Just and Loving???  Israel destroyed every miniscule bit of credibility they had with the Lord, grinding it to dust, and yet...And yet He chooses them in the midst of their clothes stained with lust, their homes filled with abominations, and their lives saturated in sin.

Doesn't His furious love just make you wanna weep?...