Because of Jesus we are fully known and fully loved. Through confessing and repenting of sin both to God and others often, we experience a deeper fellowship with Jesus and one another (1 John 1:6-7).
As a church, we strive to make this a regular practice - where the culture of LifeGroup is marked by honesty, vulnerability, and reminding each other of Jesus’ righteousness.
If you don’t know where to start on confessing sin, take some time to look through the questions below. Mark the ones that initially stand out to you. After reading through the list a couple more times, look at the questions that you marked. Choose from the marked questions 7-8 that most deeply impact you. Then, send those questions to the people in your LifeGroup (of the same gender), asking them to keep you accountable and check-in with you regularly.
1. Did I cover up any sins today so that no one will know and think that everything will be okay?
2. When is the last time I confessed my specific sins to God and to my spouse?
3. Did I imply that my skill or experience was enough to do the task or to engage with people without the Lord’s help?
4. Did I think about another person or images of other people while in the bedroom with my spouse?
5. Am I thinking about sinful actions or replaying evil in my mind today?
6. Did I exaggerate or create fictitious events/stories to make a point, as if trying to help God get His point across by lying?
7. Have I lusted or inappropriately visualized another person in any way that has not been confessed to both God and my spouse?
8. What sin is most likely crouching at my door and desiring to have me next?
9. Am I normally on time to meetings, responding to email or personal commitments? Or did someone need to remind or prompt me?
10. Define specifically what being ‘Emotionally Compromised’ means to you in a marriage relationship. Create possible scenarios with people in your life with your spouse where it would be clearly broken. Do we both have a clear understanding of these boundaries?
11. Did I return calls and emails quickly to show respect?
12. Am I talking and listening to God as I do things?
13. When was the last time I earnestly asked the Holy Spirit to show me my sin so that I could confess and repent of it?
14. Do I prayerfully ask God where my ‘free’ time should go or do I just do what I want without considering God?
15. When was the last time I really worshiped God without being distracted?
16. Am I leading with words only, or are my actions leading along with them?
17. What are my Sabbath beliefs and am I regularly practicing it?
18. Are there any recurring sin struggles in our marriage that I’ve been fearful to tell our LifeGroup?
19. Are there any resentments I have towards the church?
20. Are there any resentments I have towards someone in the church?
21. Are there any resentments I have towards my spouse or other family members?
22. What are some unhealthy things I’ve done in the last 5 years to ‘escape’ from responsibility, fears, or pressure? Have I done any of them recently?
23. Are there any specific people at Midtown that I fear or are intimidated by?
24. Who of the opposite sex have you regularly been in personal contact with? Use your technology to help (phone/PC, emails, chat, message history, game chat lines, meetings of any kind). Discuss each one with your spouse. Consider giving permission to your spouse and other accountability partners to ask you more specific questions about them.
25. What were the last few things that made me cry? When was that?
26. Have I gotten ‘buzzed’ with alcohol in the past 6 months? Am I fearful of setting boundaries with alcohol, or do I fear missing out?
27. Have I fantasized about another person that you’ve seen, watched or read about that has not been confessed to God and my spouse?
29. Do I have any private email addresses that my spouse doesn’t know about?
30. Could I hand over my phone to my spouse and show them all my browsing history of chats, texts, email, etc. without fear?
31. How do I practically define gossip when talking to my spouse? What about when talking to someone other than my spouse?
32. What are the names of non-Christians that I am praying for regularly and actively building with?
33. What kind of things/people restore me? What kind of things/people drain me?
34. At the end of a week, how do I define success?
35. Where are different areas I feel misunderstood or not respected and by whom?
36. How many months has it been since I was away two full nights without kids and without any work responsibilities?
37. If I had an unexpected $10,000, what would I do what with it?
38. What things in the last week helped me spiritually grow the most?
39. Do I ‘hate’ any routine activities that must get done each week or month?
40. What are indicators that my relationship with God is thriving?
41. What are the indicators that my relationship with God is stale or dry?
42. How often do I reflect and talk about the ‘wins’ of what God is doing in my family and church family?
43. What are 2-3 of my top frustrations in the past month?
44. What are 3 things people have done for me over the past few years that truly loved me in a unique way?
45. (Did this list prompt other questions someone might ask me? What were they?)
What are the 7-8 questions that you want your accountability partners/LifeGroup to ask you?
Who will you ask to regularly check-in with you to ask these questions? Schedule those times in your calendar.