confession and forgiveness is an act that we participate with the lord that is actually forming our hearts and transforming us in order to be a type of people that can live in the kingdom of heaven that is coming to earth that can be a type of people that are citizens of the kingdom of heaven and i think it is as a witness to a world that is desperate to see the hope of the kingdom um and so there’s something about participating in confession participating in the act of forgiveness when it’s hard that it’s doing something

inside of us to form us but it actually is also simultaneously is an act that’s inviting other people outside to take part of the goodness that we’ve experienced i would say in my experience the softer my heart is the more set up it is to um have beautiful things growing in it soft hearts don’t as easily break yeah it’s hard brittle hearts that are more prone to getting broken shattered yeah so how do we do this because i think we’ve made a strong case to do it but how do we do it and so in the book forgiving what you can’t forget

i decided that i needed a system i’m a real systems person and so you can convince me to do something but if i don’t have a system to implement it then it probably won’t get done so the best way if my heart has been hardened about something the best way for truth to break through is god’s word and me getting into god’s word and letting god’s word get into me starts to tenderize me in a way that very few other things can and so i decided to look up some verses that dealt with relational issues or topical issues from

situations that i’ve been through and just list out some of those verses and then in my journal i decided to take myself through this system and so maybe this will help i started to write down i wrote down these words progress suppress digress regress confess forgiveness so it’s six words so first progress i read the verse and i say where am i making progress with this verse and typically i can think of some situation some relationship where i am making progress with this verse then second suppress what is a situation where i’m feeling

resistant to living out this verse so then the next word i write is digress is there a situation where i’m taking steps backwards with this verse so i’m not just feeling resistant to live it i’m actually doing the opposite of what this verse says and then regress where am i living in rebellion against this verse well once i take myself through those words progress suppress digress regress now i have something to confess and that flows right down in that amazing job to confess yes and so then now that i’ve written now that i’m at