Confess thoughts for answered prayer?

Confess thoughts for answered prayer?

When I pray to God I make sure I am obeying Him, and keeping the commandments which is an easy thing to do. But I was told by a Christian expert that we are even suppose to confess thoughts and things we say that are harmful because God will not answer prayer if we hold sin in our life.

So the question is can God answer a prayer when we have not confessed certain thoughts. Will He answer a prayer if there are sinful thoughts in my head? Aren't our actions the ones that keep God from answering our prayers and not the thoughts since thoughts are just that. They are not actual sin.
 
A sin of omission happens when we don’t do something bad, but could have done better in a situation. Now, what would be the thinking behind the sins of omission? If sin has two parts, the thought and the ensuing deed, then we must look for a corresponding pair in a sin of omission.
But we may have trouble locating the engendering thought, because it’s the lack of thought that leads to sins of omission. Remember, Jesus elevated the New Covenant paradigm of sin and righteousness above the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees. We don’t consider doing a "bad work"as the full measure of sin any more than we consider a 'good work' as righteousness.
We’re looking at another level of measurement altogether, that of the mind. So when we consider sins of omission, we face a challenge to our understanding, namely, how can we sin when nothing at all happened? Can we be guilty of sin when we have done nothing wrong or even had a wrong thought? Absolutely yes, and the realization of this circumstance is a watershed issue in our maturity in Christ.
I recall years ago a young brother in a Bible discussion saying, "But what if you haven’t sinned that day?" Clearly, his understanding of sin at that time included only sins of commission, and probably big bad ones at that.
He would grow into a day when he would chortle at that statement. He would learn that the definition of sin includes far more than doing something wrong. He would learn how much good he could have done, had he had the awareness to do so.
Let’s take a simple example. You put money in the collection on Sunday. "good for me" you might think. If you think you have any merit because of this, you’ve essentially gone back under the law. That’s a sin of attempted justification by works, and an act of pride.
But what if you didn’t think "good for me" or anything like that. What if you thought, "God gives to me, and I give back." That’s better, but who knows what attitude is really lurking behind that? God knows.For God dwells in us. Let’s say He finds you pure even at that level, and wholly congruent in your act of love.
But why didn't you put two or three times that amount into the collection? Did you not think of that? Did it not occur to you that you could do so? If you could have, but didn’t, then that’s an omission. The omission is what we haven’t yet grown up to in Christ.
Now we’re getting at the main theology of sin in the New Covenant. It’s not so much what we've done amiss, but what we haven't yet done or even thought of doing, but could be doing.
Omissions come when we don’t preach, when we don’t make the opportunity to preach, when we don’t prepare ourselves to preach, when we don’t give freely, lend freely, help freely, love freely, serve freely. The sin of omission, though, occupies an even larger domain than specific behaviors. It also includes failing to take steps to increase our faith.
The greatest sin of omission lies not in the specific lack of any certain act or deed, it lies in our failure to become whom we ought to be in Christ.For now, we note the basic redefinition of the idea of sin as we move from law to grace. Law defined right and wrong behavior. Sin meant violating the code. This could mean failing to do a necessary ritual, but more commonly it meant doing a prohibited action.
Under grace, we move from the behavioral and tangible world to the realm of values, thoughts, and beliefs. Sins of commission now have labels such as "lust," "envy," "pride," "judging," and "party spirit."
Sins of omission, in terms of the New Covenant, don’t have a crisply defined category. Scripture says, "All that is not of faith is sin." This means that we define sin in the context of faith, not law. Sin goes beyond breaking a commandment. It now includes failing to live according to faith; this emphasizes performance rather than avoidance. We have a view of sin that exceeds the scope of sin as defined by law.
Our view of sin must go beyond "doing something bad." It must go past that, and beyond "thinking something bad." It must even go beyond "failing to do good." Our definition finally comes to rest at something like "falling short in our quest to live in faith and love." This is not to say that if we do bad, we don’t commit sin. Of course sin is still sin, adultery is still adultery, and lying is still lying.
If we commit sin, we need to ask for forgiveness. We also need to appreciate the breach of faith that is the root of our sin. And what we need to see most is the growth of our faith, and realize that the greatest sin is the indifference and unawareness that stunts our spiritual growth.
The question about life’s activities and challenges we want to ask is not "What’s wrong with it?" but "What’s right with it?" Better yet ask, "Is this consistent with the growth of my faith?"




God bless
 
In all honesty if He waited until we were sinless He would have to wait until after His own return to answer our prayers. Do not get me wrong I am submitting my own heart to Him as I walk in this life but I know the flesh and it's desires to be quite anti-christ.
I do not think there is a biblical reqirement for verbally confession but then God always responds to our faith. And without said faith it is impossible to please Him nor can we receive from Him.
 
Dear Mellow: I think of a radio Pastor; who prays before he teaches that the Lord would "forgive this sinner of all my sins for they are many and cleanse my lips that I may speak Your truth and Your Word"....;) (we can have thoughts and sins that are "not known" to us but we can "put them under the blood" without trying to make a list(this is man's idea; not God's). As Brother Bo says: God responds to our faith...
He wants ALL of us...even the parts we are not aware of, even the thoughts we have yet to think.;)

A few of my favorite scriptures.

I John 1:7-9 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

2 Corinthians 10:5
Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

Hebrews 4:16
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.


God is gracious and loving and just. The Bible gives us the instruction we need and His Holy Spirit gives us the understanding. Trust Him and His Word.
 
But I was told by a Christian expert that we are even suppose to confess thoughts and things we say that are harmful because God will not answer prayer if we hold sin in our life.

This is a prime example of why it's important to be in the Word. The pastor at my church has said something like this, and I think it may apply here as well: "If I owned a bank, I wouldn't teach my tellers how to spot counterfeit by studying all the counterfeit bills that are known. That job would never be complete. Rather, I would have them study the real bills to the point where if/when a counterfeit is encountered, they know the real one so well, it's easy to pick out the fake." That's not a perfect quote, but hopefully, you get the idea.
So just get in the Word and go in w/ the attitude that you will not understand it's real meaning unless the Holy Spirit teaches you. The Holy Spirit will teach you truth. :)
 
even if you have all the faith in the world, God doesn't always give us what we want and need... Even if it is materialistic or things of the unseen...God gives us what he sees fit for us, only God knows what's best for us... We can ask God for something we despiratelly need our whole life,we can ask God with all our faith and with a clean heart and it will not be given to us...that shouldn't make us turn our backs away from God... God gives us everything we need at the right time and place:) if we do not recieve what we have faithfully been asking for our whole lives its bec God knows what's best for you:)
Just my view mellow:) hope not to offend any one:) peace:)
 
Nowhere in Scripture is it written that we must not repent!

Faith and repentance while speaking to God are important. Top priority.
Before coming in God's presence what I usually do is pray repentance prayers and glorify Him for forgiving me :)
I feel so much better afterward and try my best to stop all sins.
Then I worship Him and Praise Him.

We must always repent from our new sins. If we live with the idea that Jesus forgave our old sins with prayer (that's true) but also our new sins without prayer then God will not look at us much and our faith will go down without knowing why.

My point here is that to pray repentance prayer shows and acknowledges that we are sinners to God. But by faith in His son "Lord you promised us to cleanse us from our sins" And behold, He has.
If one prays once a repentance prayer and then he thinks God has forgiven even his future sins then the person, even while sinning, might never repent anymore.

With Faith comes repentance, someone who has a lot of faith will want to please God and therefore Repent before Him.
 
Submit to god resist the devil and he will flee from you not every thought comes from you ask god to help you ehy confess for a thought that the devil casts at you resist him in jesus name he is a liar and a thieve god loves you and is for you always god bless we wrestle not against flesh and blood take up the armour of god put on the lord jesus christ my friend and seek god
 
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