“Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, ‘I will confess my rebellion to the LORD.’ And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.”

—Psalm 32:5 

Years ago, a talk show segment featured the story of a little dog named Mugsy who had been hit by a car and was presumed dead by his owners. His grieving family buried him in a corner of their yard. But the next morning at 5:30, there was a scratching at their back door.

Much to the family’s surprise, it was their beloved Mugsy. Apparently, he wasn’t dead after all. The persistent pup dug himself out of his grave.

That is what unconfessed sin is like. We may think we’ve buried it, but it will be back. There is only one way to get rid of our sin, and it’s at the cross of Jesus Christ. We can’t cover it. We can’t hide it. And we can’t run from it. It will stay with us until we confess it.

After his sin of adultery and murder, David eventually admitted to God that he had sinned. Later he wrote about it in Psalm 32: “When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long” (verse 3 NLT).

David continued, “Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, ‘I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.’ And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone” (verse 5 NLT).

He didn’t try to blame someone else for his sin. He didn’t try to hide it at this point. Rather, David called it what it was, and he dealt with it in a straightforward way.

We always want to blame others for our sins and say that it isn’t our fault.

Do you need to own up to something you’ve done? Or are you playing the blame game? There must come a point in your life when you say, “I’ve sinned. I’ve committed this iniquity. The problem is me.” And that is when things will change for you.