Confession - Searching the Heart

Following on from adoration, confession is another of prayer I find difficult. Not because I have nothing to confess, but because it is easy to focus on 'big' sins, the obvious ones, and to fail to search our hearts for hidden faults. These can lie undetected and cause all sorts of festering problems.

Here's a list I came across somewhere, called The A-Z of Hidden Sin. I've added to it, and you can do likewise. On my own copy I mark those that I am particularly prone to, and use it to help me search my heart.

An A-Z of Hidden Sin

Addiction
Anger
Animosity
Anxiety
Being negative
Being unwatchful for Satan
Bitterness
Boastfulness
Bringing dishonour to God's name,
Closed-mindedness
Complaining
Condemnation
Covetousness
Critical nature
Deception
Discord
Discouragement
Dissention
Dogmatism
Domination
Egoism
Envy
Failure to spur one another on
Failure to show Christian love
Fear
Gluttony
Gossip
Guilt
Hard-heartedness
Hatred
Haughtiness
Hostility
Idolatry
Immoral fantasies
Impatience
Impurity
Indifference
Inflexibility
Injustice
Insincerity
Intemperance
Jealousy
Judgmentalism
Lack of affection
Lack of concentration in worship/prayer
Lack of faith
Lack of forgiveness
Lack of zeal
Laziness
Materialism
Neglecting to study God's Word
Prayerlessness
Prejudice
Pride
Purposelessness
Quick temper
Rebellion
Resentment
Rudeness
Self-righteousness
Selfish ambition
Selfishness
Silence
Skepticism
Squandering
Stealing God's Glory
Time misspent
Unbelief
Ungratefulness
Untruthfulness
Vanity
Yielding to Satan's temptations
Zeal misplaced

I have also used various verses that highlight different issues that we need to be vigilant for:

2 Timothy 3:1 There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God- 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

Matthew 23:25 "You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.

Mark 12:30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' 31 The second is this: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."



Merciful Lord,
Pardon all my sins of this day, week, year,
all the sins of my life,
sins of early, middle, and advanced years,
of omission and commission,
of thought, word and deed,
sins in private, in the family, in the neighbourhood,
in work and recreation,
in my relationship with you,
in my relationship and dealings with others.
Pardon all my sins, known and unknown,
felt and unfelt,
confessed and not confessed,
remembered and forgotten.
Good Lord, hear;
and hearing, forgive.