‘Forgive me Father for I have sinned…’

By Daniel Francis

Last week was the first time in years that I did Confession. I am ashamed to say this. Don’t be like me.

I remember the last time I went for Confession very clearly. It was right before I set off to study abroad. I thought this would be a good way to prepare for this new world I was about to experience in America as I did my undergrad in New Orleans.

The following years would see me grow further away from God and my faith. I made excuses as we all do sometimes. I blamed it on work, school, energy levels, etc. The fact was that I had no good reason.

When it came to Confession, I think there was a great shame I had not even realised existed. I am a sinner, and it seems like I will continue sinning. Do I have the right to ask God to absolve me of my sins when I will sin again?

Only recently I have been going through an extremely tough time. God was desperately trying to show me a specific path and at every opportunity, I was fighting Him.

So, He decided to let me burn. It was only through burning I would learn. While in this challenging period, I began thinking about Confession, asking myself why I have not allowed myself to go in all these years.

I acknowledged that all of the reasons that initially popped into my head were excuses. When I peeled back the layers it came down to shame: shame to admit my sins and the weakness to not want to tackle them in the way I needed to.

In so doing, I was diminishing my faith by halting my growth. In typical God fashion, He showed me what I needed to see in that moment.

A post appeared on my timeline speaking about how Satan attacks us, as though meant for me. In the video, the individual talked about how the enemy does not simply want us to sin but wants us to lose connection with God. The enemy wants us to despair. I was in despair and in my despair, I was severing my connection with God by not allowing myself to participate in the activities that help me to grow in connection with God and nurture my faith.

My despair inhibited my drive to go to Confession. So not only was I sinning but I stopped asking for forgiveness. I stopped putting in the intentional work to be truly sorry for my sins and to seek forgiveness to lead a holier life with God’s guidance.

I deprived myself of something that would help me grow emotionally and spiritually. I deprived myself of a way to accept and learn from my shortcomings.

Are you reading this right now and thinking about ways that the enemy has led you to despair? How has that despair severed your connection with God and with your faith?

The more important question is, ‘How will you repair that connection?’ God is a forgiving God, and He wants to guide His sheep back into the fold. We must not fall for the tricks laid by the enemy and not allow ourselves to make excuses when we know what we must do.

The truth is our behaviour is decided by the internal battles that we either win or lose. I was losing that internal battle for some time, allowing excuses to guide my actions.

It was only when I allowed God back into those decisions that it was clear that no excuse is powerful enough to stop God. We must always remember that God is always with us, and we must let Him in to help us fight off despair and keep our connection to Him strong.

If it has been a while since your last Confession, I hope you take this as a sign to go.

Daniel Francis is a millennial helping other millennials. He is a two-time author of the books The Millennial Mind and The Millennial Experience, and an entrepreneur. Over the past four years, he has served as a Personal Development Coach whose work targets Millennials and helps them tap into their full potential. He is also a self-publishing coach and has guided hundreds on self-publishing their book successfully.

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Email: themillennialmind2020@gmail.com