Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. We all, with unveiled faces, are reflecting the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit. – 2 Corinthians 3:17-18
I think Catholics have an advantage if they are willing to use it. The confessional always seemed to me to be an inspired concept. If you have a priest who knows his job on one side and a genuinely repentant sinner on the other side, you have the recipe for real deliverance and spiritual growth. How often the experience is less than that, I do not know anymore than I know how often confession is abused and misused. In theory, though, a person can unburden his soul and receive immediate feedback from the Father, via the priest, assuring him that he is a forgiven child of God and is still loved. If it devolves into empty ritual, it’s not the fault of the concept.
As a naïve believer, I read “confess your faults one to another”. Thinking this would help me to overcome temptations, I tried it out. The results were less than helpful. I do think, if I am having trouble with another believer, “confessing my faults” to that person with regard to our disagreement or conflict is beneficial and appropriate. It’s a way of letting down my guard, unilaterally disarming, so to speak, to attempt to defuse the situation (note: this only applies to verbal conflicts in a figurative sense). Otherwise, I keep my confession between my Father and me.
I know some men have accountability partners to help them deal with bad habits, usually of a sexual nature. If that works, it’s good. For me, though, I think it would simply foster an enhanced sin consciousness that would serve to keep me tied to the habit as much as succumbing to the habit itself. I believe that the key to deliverance from any temptation is Second Corinthians 3:17-18. The more we look upon the Lord, the more like Him we become. The more we expose ourselves to His Spirit through His word, prayer and meditation, the more we are transformed into His image. I don’t think of this as discipline so much as attitude.
All that we read or hear, see or experience -- with unveiled faces -- can be seen as a reflection of the glory of the Lord. Everything we encounter can be transformative. Paul did without food and shelter, was beaten, stoned, and shipwrecked. I’m sure he sought out and desired none of these obstacles, attacks, or sufferings. Yet, in the end he would “boast” of them for they had the effect of making him more Christ-like. It isn’t just doing religious stuff. Not to be vulgar, but Moses’ face glowed with the glory of God down at the latrine. Holy ____.
What usually happens is that we do something we should not do, and we become trapped in a downward, negative spiral rather than an upward, positive one. Tears and remorse don’t do a whole lot to help me get off the sin-cycle. Say I get locked into watching the marriage ceremony in Zulu repeatedly. Every time I watch those native girls, I end up saying that I’m never going to watch it again. But then the devil tells me that I’m really a horrible person for watching all that jiggling. I feel condemned. I know I am a failure. Because I feel so bad it begins to occupy my mind. It begins to seem like a really big thing. There’s pressure to avoid it. Now, instead of just hitting the skip to the next scene because you really don’t miss anything, it becomes an obsession. By making such a big deal out of it, I’ve trapped myself into saying, hey, just one more time.
If, instead of focusing on the “not”, I focus on the “I AM”, I soon see the lure of sin for what it is, something external to the real me. Yes, maybe it is tangled up in the old man, but the old man is dead. Paul expounded on this at length in three consecutive chapters of the Book of Romans. Chapter Seven in particular looks at how trying not to think about Zulu babes means thinking about nothing but Zulu babes. Once, however, we have an understanding of who is actually doing the sinning, the temptation itself becomes a flag showing us the line beyond which the non-true self lies. I am delivered – not by the strength of my own will – but by realizing who I am.
