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someone help me out

kyrillos02kyrillos02
edited December 1969 in Faith Issues
hey guys i have a question and i was wondering if ud help me out:if u confess b4 u repent would it still count or would ur sin not go away



mina

Comments

  • wfhanna1wfhanna1
    well by confessing it to abouna he of course will tell you what you did is wrong and so on BUT at the end abouna would put his hand on you and pray and in that prayer he prays for God to forgive your sins so by that prayer and abouna praying to you and you feelings sorry in your heart your sin is forgiven and gone.
    hope that helps a bit
  • Mariam314Mariam314
    well you shouldnt really confess before you sin but if you did, its not a big deal, as long as you truly regret and feel bad about your sins.

    God Bless,
    Mariam
  • wfhanna1wfhanna1
    [quote author=Mariam314 link=board=1;threadid=555;start=0#msg9149 date=1093122029]
    well you shouldnt really confess before you sin but if you did, its not a big deal, as long as you truly regret and feel bad about your sins.

    God Bless,
    Mariam

    Mariam you lost me how can you confess something before you sin it???
    i thought the main question was if you sin and not repent then go confess about it. am i right?
  • Unknown
    Lol, yeah Wasim, you got the question right, I think. :-\ But the first time I read it, I read it the way Mariam did. I think that you should repent before you confess because, if you had a friend and you did something wrong to them, you should tell that friend what you did wrong and ask for their forgiveness. If you can't face your friend, then you're not very close friends. Then, you ask your other friend to say sorry for you, to make sure that everything's ok. Sorry, kind of off topic. :-\
  • Unknown
    I think that you'd have to repent first because what good is confessing if you don't feel bad (yet). You have to think before you confess about what you did, repent, and have a true desire of not going back to the sin.
  • PrincessMaryPrincessMary
    -"I tell you no; but unless you REPENT you will all likewise PERISH" (Luke 13:5)

    -"If we CONFESS our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" 1John1:9

    -"Then Peter said to them, "REPENT, and let everyone of you be baptized in the name of Christ, for the REMISSION OF SINS and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" Acts2:38

    In our church, there are 7 sacraments, and they call one of these sacraments "REPENTANCE & CONFESSION" not just "CONFESSION" which means that..both repentance and confession go together hand in hand...so before we go to confess we should have repented..or at least have in our mind the intention to repent...maybe we have not fully repented but our confession of our sins will lead to repentance...so if we confess then God has wiped our sins away, and it doesnt count against us anymore, remember He said, “though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow” Isaiah 1:18, so confession makes us, who were once so black and dirty from sin, clean and white again :)
  • kyrillos02kyrillos02
    thanks alot guys u really helped me out
  • Unknown
    I would say your welcome, but I wasn't really of much help :-\, but your welcome anyways.
  • wfhanna1wfhanna1
    well while you are confessing if you repent at that moment then its gone as long as you repent thats the idea behind it.
    it doesn't really matter if it was an hour or two after it or like a month (well it kinda matter depending on the sin and it results) but what i mean is that God would accept your repetance as long as you do it with clear heart and have good intention of stopping that thing you did
    hope that helped a bit
  • PaulhPaulh
    Why do you confess? What do you feel is the point of confessing. These must be something inside of you that wants to be cleaned and is tired of being dirty, and thats why your going to abouna to confess. This isn't repentance, but its a major part of it. The feeling that you want to be cleaned. Next you should understand that what you did was wrong, and why its wrong. And you should decide in your heart if your going to do it again or not. Decide honostly, and ask yourself if your really willing on doing this again or not.
    You may think i'm coocoo for telling you to ask yourself this, but its true. I remember once a few of my friends decided to take a trip to abouna's office and they tagged me along. I didn't wanna confess though. Cus i knew deep down inside that i was going to lie to my parents again. So i told myself "whats the point of confessing it if i'm planning on doing it again." What i should've done was say "I'm going to confess and try my HARDEST to not do this sin again, and I know i may fall, but I have faith that God will help me through this and strengthen me against this bond of sin." And confession alone does nothing. At the end of confession Abouna recites an absolution for you. The absolution he recites is the same exact absolution that he says during the liturgy when all the congregation is bowing down before the deacons start chanting tai shori, except during confession he adds and "Our Father..." at the end. So what does confession alone do you, if you can get the same absolution during the liturgy?
  • demianademiana
    repentance and confession go hand in hand.. u cant do one w/o the other... its like fire... the flame and the light are inseprable... repentance anc confession can not be veiwd as 2 different things... there even counted as one sacrament... if u confess w/o repenting or repent w/o confessing and u have the oppurtunity to do both that ur sin will not be forgiven
  • arubaiscrazyarubaiscrazy
    honestly i dont think that makes since, you wont be truly confessing with all you heart, soul, and mind because you haven't realized or regreted how much our sins push the nails deeper into the lord's body.....remember when you confess you are really confessing to God you need to have the time to repent to help you not commit those sins over....or at least try not to....that time helps you see all the danger you have put yourself in and the disappointment you have caused Christ. you need to repent so you could be fully open for your sins to be washed away....after confession you cant repent since your since were washed away....you should feel clean and renewed....how can you experience that happiness if you are repenting after confesstion....lol....but as long as you had good intensions....but i dont understand how that could happen!
  • Magnoona4lyfMagnoona4lyf
    I get wut u mean....it's like u go to aboona and confess and repent @ the same time....well the point of repentance is that God is the only one who can forgive your sins, therefore in order for aboona to give u the hel, u have to have confessed to God first before anyone else. Repentance is the time spent between u and God where u contemplate on all the sins u did and ask for forgiveness and strength not to do them again. So wen u just confess b4 repenting ur not really giving urself the chance to tell God that you're sorry and u really dont get to ask him for forgiveness because at that point u had already confessed to aboona and taken the hel.....r u confoosed yet? lolx....i hope that helped kind of, o and by the way, we can never say whether or not it is a sin....that is God's true judgement, however its safer and healthier for u 2 repent BEFORE u confess, thats the way it has always been done, u and Jesus then u and the aboona :-* GOD BLESS U!
  • Unknown
    [quote author=kyrillos02 link=topic=555.msg9139#msg9139 date=1093110248]
    hey guys i have a question and i was wondering if ud help me out:if u confess b4 u repent would it still count or would ur sin not go away
                                                       


    mina


    Mina,

    Repentance is turning away from sin. There is a danger if you confess when you haven't repented that you will do the sin again.

    I think it will count against you: here's why:

    Let's say you confess but havent repented for a sin: what does this mean:

    If you KNOW very well in your heart that what you are doing is wrong, and you havent repented for it, and you don't want to repent for it (i.e. stop from doing it), yet you are confessing so you are not judged on that sin, then you will still be judged, because it would be like me telling abouna the following:

    Let's say I hate a man, and I swore at a man and said he was "a donkey". I want to confess because I dont want God to judge me against this, but in my heart, I still think he's a donkey and I hate him. Would abouna give you the absolution??

    Confession without repentance is like condemning yourself. You are telling a judge that you killed a man and would do it again if you had the chance. There is no remorse. That's a silly thing to say especially when the judge is someone who is advocating for you!! Christ is our advocate, and judge. He wants us to be free and live. He's not at all looking to condemn us. On the contrary.

    Yet, we end up condemning ourselves because we do something wrong, and expect God to forgive us and we know VERY WELL that it is wrong, and we don't intend to stop ourselves from doing it.

    Now, let's say that you intend to stop this particular sin, yet you want to confess now - ahead of time.

    I think it is best to stop the sin 1st. If you fall in the same sin again, repent and confess it. But if you have the intention in your head to keep on doing the same sin again, that is just asking for problems.
  • binC
      +++

    Hello friends,

    I learned a lot from this topic. All the time I thought repentance and confession are the same. I know now what I lack. Repentance is like uprooting and throwing away to pile it up one place and cofession will burn it. Burning without the uprooting will still give it the chance for it to grow up since the root is still in the ground. I think I heard this from one sermon. I need a real repentance.

    May God give us all His true love which will make our heart barren our heart to any sin with the fervent prayers of St. Mary, His holiest mother, His holy angels and saints. Amen!!! 
  • gr
    We must be weary of tricks from the devil.  He may try to use our feeling of lack of repentance as a tool to prevent us from speaking to our confessional father.

    Here's an excerpt from Heg. Athanasius Iskander's Practical Spirituality It makes for some excellent reading and answers the vast majority of posts one can find on these forums!

    It is available here:  http://stmaryscopticorthodox.ca/content/books/spirituality.pdf

    THE WILES OF THE ENEMY:
    The enemy tries to put as many obstacles in our way or trick us to
    quit the fight. Here are some of his famous tricks.
    You resist for a long time then you are overcome, so he suggests to
    you that since all is lost, why not indulge some more and try later.
    Wrong! Since you fought with courage, all is not lost, you did not lose
    the war, you just got wounded in the battle. Do not give in and wallow
    in your impurity because that is treason! If you lost while fighting, you
    deserve a reward! To give in to his suggestion that “all is lost” and that
    “it doesn’t matter any more” is to help him rob you of your reward! So,
    stand up and resume fighting and do not give in to the thoughts of
    defeat, and the Lord, who endured the temptations of the devil, will
    pity you and help you.
    The other trick is this. He suggests to you that since in the end you
    are going to lose, so why bother fighting? He tried this one on a monk
    and the monk told him, “One blow for you and one blow for me!” It is
    like a boxing match. You try to give your opponent as many blows as
    you can regardless of how many blows you receive. Only at the end of
    the match will you know the score !
    Another famous trick is this. You fall into sin, you feel guilty and
    want to go back to God and ask for forgiveness. The devil rebukes you
    saying, “How dare you show your face or talk to God after what you
    have done!” And then he suggests to you, “Wait for a few hours or a
    few days until you are “clean” and then pray! Wrong! You come to
    God as you are. When the Prodigal Son decided to come back, he came
    immediately. He had the stench of the swine he had been living with allover
    him. He did not wait to put clean clothes on him. It was the Father
    who took away his filthy clothes and gave him a clean robe. The Father
    did not disdain the stench of his son. He was overcome by His love for
    his son who was dead and is now alive. He ran and embraced him even
    though he had the stench of sin all-over him.
    Father Lev Gilet, an Orthodox monk noted for his spiritual writings,
    once wrote this, “You must be certain that in the same moment that
    you are committing sin, God loves you.” The devil may suggest
    otherwise but he is a liar.

    So, as soon as you fall, immediately go on your knees before your
    loving Father and tell Him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and
    before Thee, and am no more worthy to be called Thy son.”
    Immediately you will feel the warm embrace of the Father and His
    loving kisses. Once more you are on your feet fighting again with
    courage. Needless to say that this initial act of repentance does not take
    the place of confessing to your Father in confession.
    Another trick he will try is this one. He comes and says to you, “How
    many times you have done this? Do you think God will go on accepting
    you every time you come running back to Him?” The answer is yes! For
    when Peter asked the Lord how many times he should forgive his
    brother every day, the Lord answered him seven times seventy. Don’t
    you think the Lord Who expects us to forgive each other seven times
    seventy every day will give us the same chance? As many times as you
    fall, come back to God. He will never turn His back on you.
    A lay person went into a monastery and asked one of the monks,
    “what makes you different from us who live in the world?” and the
    monk answered, “We fall, then we rise up, then we fall, then we rise up
    then we fall then we rise up!” You see, we are all in the same boat!

    Moral of the story:  always, always talk to your FoC.  Even if you think you haven't repented yet, explain that to him and get his advice. 
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