The hardest three words to say as they ought to be said are these: “I have sinned.” It is only when a person comes face to face with his own sinfulness and is willing to confess it that he can become right with God.
Jesus tells the story about a rebellious teenager who ran away from home and wasted all of his money in wild living. He eventually became tired of conditions in the far country. He decided to go home, admit that he had made a mistake in leaving, and ask his father’s forgiveness.
We know that as the story of the prodigal son. It reveals to us the steps necessary to coming into a right relationship with God. They are:
1. Homesickness. We must first get heartsick and tired of the far country and have a longing to be right with God. Until a person is fed up with the emptiness of sin, he can never be right with God.
2. Honesty. We must be willing to admit the fact of our own sin. There is no way around it. Until we can say honestly and openly, “I have sinned” and mean it, we cannot be right with God.
3. Humility. We must be willing to ask God to make us what we ought to be. The prodigal son left home saying, “Give me.” He returned home saying, “Make me.”
The prodigal son left home a boy and he came back a man. Only an adult is able to face himself, his sin, and the heavenly Father honestly and humbly and say, “I have sinned.”