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     Nehemiah knew it.  David knew it.  Ezra, Solomon and Samson knew it.  Sin separates us from God.  A God who is holy, just, and jealous cannot have disobedience go unpunished.  Thankfully, God is also gracious and merciful.  The question of the ages is “How can I find God’s mercy on the day of judgment?” 
    The simple answer is that you ask for it.  God has been offering mankind mercy since the garden, and he will continue to offer mercy until the time when Jesus comes again.  The Lord does not delight in the destruction of sinners but would prefer that the entire world repent of sin and come to the know the righteousness that comes from God through faith.  God will supply what we need if we will ask him for it.
    Today, we initially ask God for his mercy by being baptized into Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins.  This is the gospel message that was commanded by Christ and is the message repeatedly preached by the apostles.  Peter even details for us that our baptism is an appeal, an urgent and earnest request, to God for a good conscience through Christ’s resurrection.  When we are baptized, we are asking God to forgive us.  But what about when I sin after that?  What about the lie I knowingly told a week after my baptism?  What about the harsh, even hateful, words I said a year later?  How can I know that I will be forgiven for those things?  How can I have a good conscience?
    Prayer.  I must confess my sins to God and beg him for forgiveness.
    Nehemiah was devastated by the news that Jerusalem lay in ruins (cf. Nehemiah 1.1-11).  He wept and mourned over the loss of the city and the separation he now knew, without doubt, to exist between God and his people.  Nehemiah did the one thing he knew could restore his relationship with God, he repented and turned to God in prayer.  He prayed for himself, for his father’s house, and for his entire nation.  He admitted to acting corruptly and violating the statutes, the commands and the ordinances of God.  He opened his heart to the Most High and threw himself upon the one thing that could save him from his sin: God’s mercy.
    David was confronted by his sins through Nathan the prophet (cf. 2 Samuel 12.1-15, Psalm 51).  One can picture the proud and defiant David crumbling before the prophet as his sins are laid bare and his punishment is revealed to him.  His deeds, which he had fooled himself into believing were concealed, had been laid bare before him.  He sinned against the Lord, he knew it, and there was nothing he could do to make himself right with God except to pray.  David threw himself down before the mercy of God and urgently, earnestly made his appeal for forgiveness: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!  For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.  Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.”
    There are some important concepts we can glean from these prayers that will help us come before God to confess our sins.  The first is the absence of vague language. Both Nehemiah and David are forthright with their confession to God.  While they freely admit to the wrong they have committed, they don’t necessarily list all of their sins.  Likewise, we do not have to come before God with a litany of our sins each time we pray (He already knows what we’ve done), but we should be direct.  Isn’t this what we would expect if someone were coming to apologize to us and ask forgiveness?  Why would we think God should be any different?  We have offended him; we have sinned against him.  We should admit to that.
    Second, neither David nor Nehemiah trusted in their prayers to accomplish anything.  That may seem contradictory to everything mentioned so far, but it’s the truth.  Both of these men recognized that they weren’t going to be forgiven because they prayed to God; they knew that they were going to be forgiven because God is gracious and merciful.  There is no single Christian alive today who can claim they will be saved on the last day because they chose to be baptized.  However, every Christian alive today can claim to have the promise of God’s grace and mercy because of their baptism.  It is not my baptism, my work, that saves, but God’s grace.  Similarly, it is not my prayer that obtains forgiveness, but God’s grace that grants it.  David and Nehemiah knew that only God and his mercy could save them from their sins, so that is precisely what they asked for.
    Nehemiah and David also knew that changes had to take place in their lives.  David pleaded with God to create a new heart within him.  Nehemiah recalled the promise of God to gather and restore his people.  Both knew that the sins of the past were unacceptable, and both knew that the future must hold the fruits of repentance.  A very important part of our prayers which confess sin to God must be the request for strength and courage to do what is right in the future.  God’s desire is certainly that we would turn and be forgiven, but perhaps even more than that he desires that we would turn and walk in righteousness.  The strength which God supplies is crucial to this task.
    Finally, there is the desire to teach others about the Lord.  When we have sin in our lives which separates us from our God, we are broken and without hope.  There is nothing waiting for us in the future but the fiery judgment of God’s wrath.  However, when we turn to the Lord and throw ourselves at the feet of his mercy, God restores us, renews us, revives us.  God is the source of all our strength, our courage, our hope.  We can knowing, without a doubt, that we possess these things when we approach God through prayer.  Don’t you want other people to have that same hope?  Don’t you want other people who are broken to be restored?  David, referring to the time when he is restored by the Lord says, “Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.”
    When we confess our sins to God, who cannot lie, we have his promise of forgiveness.  We can know, with surety, that we have been forgiven.  Because we have these great and precious promises, we should be bold to approach the throne of grace.  We should be willing to confess our sins to the Lord, to accept that God’s mercy and love alone are the source of our salvation, and be convicted that we must change the way we live.  After we have confessed, we ought to be so overfilled with joy that messages of praise and delight in the Lord spill forth from our lips, teaching the world around us of the great salvation that comes from God.
    What an amazing and wonderfully gracious God we serve who loves us so very much!  Our God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.  Who better to approach and ask for forgiveness than the Lord?