Yesterday we discussed the leadership fight among House Democrats. Today's New York Times has the results: Steny Hoyer of Maryland defeated Nancy Pelosi's candidate, John Murtha of Pennsylvania, by a vote of 149 to 86. While the loss is painful for the new Speaker of the House, she put it in the right light: "We've had our disagreements in that room, and now that is over." But private conflicts seldom stay that way.

Thursday we accepted British Prime Minister Tony Blair's apology for the burning of the Library of Congress in 1814. In what ways do you need to accept an apology from yourself today? What persistent sins and recurrent temptations have caused you guilt and grief? What secret shame are you glad isn't the headline of this essay? What private thoughts and attitudes are bothering your soul this morning? What do we do about them?

Let's begin with the understanding that God already knows all the secrets of our past and even our future. He is not limited by time--it is not the year 2006 with him. He can see your first sin as easily as your last sin and your next sin. King David, a man who knew something about trying to hide his sins, prayed to the Father:

"O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord" (Psalm 139:1-4). He knows the next word I'm about to write before I do.

So we confess our private sins to God, not so he'll see them but so we will. We admit our personal failures so that we can begin to deal with them. The first of every twelve-step program begins with an admission of the problem: "I'm Jim and I'm an alcoholic . . ." No doctor can help us cure a disease we won't admit.

Once we have confessed our private sin to the omniscient Lord, we claim his complete and unconditional forgiveness (see 1 John 1:9). We ask him to show us how we are to make restitution to others if such actions are in their best interest. Then, when our guilt returns, we bring it to God's grace. We drive a stake in the ground and return to it every time the enemy attacks us. We remember that we resolved that issue, refused that temptation, received grace for that guilt. We may have to reject guilt a hundred times today and ninety times tomorrow, but eventually the guilt will leave and grace will win.

Are you in need of a spiritual stake in the ground today?

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