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Key Bible Verse: "O Lord," I prayed, "have mercy on me. Heal me, for I have sinned against you" ( Psalm 41:4). Bonus Reading: 1 John 1:5-10

Even though he'd been a Christian for 13 years, Bill had never realized that every sin he committed could be redeemed and healed. One night when he was 30 years old, he learned what a powerful gift repentance can be. He'd just lost his job, his reputation was damaged, and he was in the worst financial trouble of his life. Internally, he says, "I struggled with pornography. I compromised my integrity because I wanted to look good instead of telling the truth. I blamed others for what happened to my career."

The life-changing reality Bill heard that night was that there's no difference between the power to save and the power to resolve sin. The work of Jesus isn't just for the forgiveness of every sin, but for healing from every sin. Jesus would release him from the power of the sin that had an immense hold on his life.

Bill had brought his sin to the Lord many times before. What was different that night? He faced God with what was true about him, repenting through entire, exclusive trust in the gift of God's grace to cleanse him. "I walked off the well-worn path of pleasing God [by self-effort]," Bill says, "and started walking down the road of trusting God."

—Bill Thrall, Bruce McNicol, & John Lynch in TrueFaced

My Response: How am I being redeemed from the power as well as the penalty of sin?

Thought to Apply: In confession we open our lives to the healing, reconciling, restoring, uplifting grace of Him who loves us in spite of what we are. —LOUIS CASSELS

Adapted from TrueFaced (NavPress, 2003) by permission.

Copyright © 2006 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine. Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Forgive me, Lord, for presuming to receive deliverance from the penalty of sin without an all-out effort to cooperate with You in escaping its power.

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