3 When I kept silence [before I confessed], my bones wasted away through my groaning all the day long.

4 For day and night Your hand [of displeasure] was heavy upon me; my moisture was turned into the drought of summer. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]! – Psalm 32:3-4, AMP

Years ago when my older daughter was only a toddler, I was getting my hair cut when the conversation with my stylist turned to parental discipline. I don’t recall how we got on the subject, but I must have brought up some recent example of having to chastise my daughter. The stylist then related how her father would sometimes give her an “angry father look” when she did something wrong, and then she said, “When my Daddy gave me that look, I’d fall apart crying.” With his gaze of disapproval, her father deftly communicated his sore displeasure with his daughter’s unacceptable actions, and in short order she asked his forgiveness and restored their relationship.

In Psalm 32:3-4, David expertly describes what it is like to receive an “angry father look” from God. With the furrowed brow and chastising hand of God heavy upon his soul, David felt as if he was shriveling up from the inside out and wasting away into oblivion. Every born-again child of God has felt the same way that David did, for every born-again child of God has sinned terribly against the Savior. It is a horrible thing to be trapped in the disapproving gaze of the Father, for in that gaze there is nothing but agitation, stress, anxiety, and unrest.

There is only one way to escape the Father’s angry look, and that way is simply to confess your faults and ask for God’s forgiveness. As David reports in Psalm 32:5 (AMP),

I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord [continually unfolding the past till all is told]—then You [instantly] forgave me the guilt and iniquity of my sin. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!

With confession comes instant forgiveness, and with instant forgiveness the agitation, stress, anxiety, and unrest of sin go away. No wonder David wrote in Psalm 32:1 (AMP) that:

Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is he who has forgiveness of his transgression continually exercised upon him, whose sin is covered.

When the stress of sin is banished, the peace and joy of the Lord take its place.

Do you feel like you are shriveling up inside and wasting away? If you do, chances are you have unconfessed sin in your life. If you want relief from the effects of God’s angry gaze, let go of your sin, confess it, and receive instant forgiveness.

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