Relinquish the False Self - Confessions and Self-Examination

     Many Christian's fall into this trap of "appearances."  I have to appear really Christian-like, and I have to make everybody think I don't sin.  I must be good because I've never robbed a bank, and I've never killed anybody.  I've never even cheated on a test.  But there's danger in putting up this "I'm fine" wall.  People reach complacency in their walk with Christ.  They tend to just be comfortable with where they are and claim ignorance to any sins holding them back.  They figure that their sins are only minor and don't matter in the grand scheme of things.

     It's only when we confess and continually examine ourselves for minor hindrances to our walk that we truly begin to be conformed to the image of Christ.  A person who is content with their walk will never change, and will never get closer to Christ.  We aren't supposed to be content with where we are; rather we should have the same mindset as King David:

"Search me, O God, and know my heart;

test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there is any offensive way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting." (Psalm 139:23-24)

     I know sometimes my confessions tend to run along the lines of "forgive me of my sins" rather than specifying the sins I have committed by name.  This, even if I'm doing it unknowingly, is just a way of not admitting to some of my sins.  This lack of recognition produces many hindrances to self-awareness.  When we purposefully do not pay attention to our sins because we don't want to bother with correcting them, isn't that a sin in itself?  I mean the bible says in James 4:17, "If you know the good you ought to do and don't do it, you sin."  So confessing your sins individually makes you aware of what God wants you to change in your life.  Without your acknowledgement, are you really asking for forgiveness and confessing?