Confession is truly good for the soul

After we recognize our sin, and we grieve over it, the last step is to confess it without making excuses to our merciful Father.
Ezra's prayer in chapter nine is a wonderful model for Christians to study.

 “What has happened to us is a result of our evil deeds and our great guilt, and yet, our God, you have punished us less than our sins deserved and have given us a remnant like this. 14 Shall we then break your commands again and intermarry with the peoples who commit such detestable practices? Would you not be angry enough with us to destroy us, leaving us no remnant or survivor? 15 Lord, the God of Israel, you are righteous! We are left this day as a remnant. Here we are before you in our guilt, though because of it not one of us can stand in your presence.” (v 13-15)

No excuses here!
The first thing that Ezra said was to agree with God that He had given them less punishment so far then their sins deserved. Then he agrees with God that according to their flouting of His Word, they deserve no mercy. And then he agrees with God that they'd been sent into captivity for sins many years ago.
Ezra says, in effect, "we are sinful and You are holy. We don't deserve any mercy." So the first element of confession is to agree that God is righteous, and we are not.
The second element is to confess without making excuses. Ezra doesn't breathe a word of complaint here. He doesn't say that God is not being fair. Many people today will point to "extenuating circumstances" and Ezra doesn't do that. Maybe there hadn't been enough Jewish women for all the men to marry, so they married pagan wives. Maybe they rationalized it by thinking, "Well, they will worship at the temple with us. They promised to do that."  Ezra? He doesn't use any of that. Rather than making excuses or rationalizing, he readily acknowledges that God would be quite fair if He punished them.
There's something really interesting here about Ezra, and it points to the fact that he was truly steeped in the Word. He identifies with the people - in spite of the fact that he's innocent of this sin! It shows that he is well aware of the evil that could so easily take root in his own heart. If he'd been a self-righteous man, he might have prayed and said to God: "These people of yours are wicked, Lord. They're obstinate, too. Now, I'm not like them, but You would be righteous to punish them."  Instead, he included himself when he confessed the sins of the people.

We humans are prone to minimize our sin. We call it many things.
Faults.
Shortcomings.
Tendencies.
Terms that seem more benign than "sin."
Ezra says that their sins have "risen over" their heads (v 6):

Then, at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my self-abasement, with my tunic and cloak torn, and fell on my knees with my hands spread out to the Lord my God 6 and prayed:“I am too ashamed and disgraced, my God, to lift up my face to you, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens. (Ezra 9:6)

Kinda like saying they're drowning in a flood of their sins.
He also refers to their guilt, and in verses ten through eleven, he admits that they are guilty of forsaking God's commandments by joining with the pagan peoples of the land.  Again in verses thirteen and fourteen, he refers to their evil deeds and great guilt. No sugar coating here!
He doesn't gloss over their sins.
He doesn't say sin is not a big deal.
He calls their wickedness what it is.
He is agreeing with God on His view of sin. And so must we. And the final point of his prayer is one that we can identify with, too.
At the end of his prayer, Ezra casts himself and the people on God's mercy. His undeserved mercy. He also thanks God for the current return from exile and the building of the temple -- calls them a gracious reviving from God -- and notes that those who sinned have disregarded those blessings. He says they've been ungrateful for the "light to their eyes" and "relief from bondage." (NIV)

The Bible tells us in verse five that Ezra made this lengthy prayer at the time of the evening offering. I wonder if the scents and sounds of the sacrifice encouraged his heart because God had made a way for sinners to be reconciled to Him - through the shedding of blood of a substitute. Those Old Testament sacrifices pointed to the future: to the shed blood of God's perfect (and final) sacrifice, our Lord and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. It's through faith in His blood cleansing us from sin that we can draw near to God.

Ezra's prayer has a lot to teach us. We need to be immersed daily in the Word of God, so that we can see our sin clearly in the light of the scriptures.  Then we will realize that it put our Savior on the cross and we will mourn over that sin.  Then we can confess it to the God of mercy, making no excuses, and receive His cleansing for our sins. We will receive that cleansing with joy, and be renewed to serve Him!

Lord, help me to dwell at the foot of the cross, and receive your mercy daily for my sins.

Hope everyone has a blessed and peaceful weekend!