Yes, we should always be ready to confess our sins. To whom shall we confess? God. We do not have to confess to anyone else in our lives. But it helps. If we confess our faults to our loved ones that we can trust, someone who will give us a true and honest response, we can have help in dealing with the burden of those faults. Be careful, if we confess to someone that does not have our best interests in mind, or someone that does not truly care for our well being, our confession might be used against us. If we confess our sins to God, He will help us deal with all of the issues surrounding these faults/sins. He is also faithful and just to forgive us (1 John 1:9). God is the only one who can forgive us from our sins. He is the only one who can cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Why do we need to confess?

We were born sinners. Born into a sinful nature. If we do not confess that we are sinful to God and ask Him to forgive us, He, because He is just, cannot forgive us. Jesus has already paid for them, but we will not be forgiven for them until we believe on the Lord Jesus and confess that Jesus was raised from the dead by His Father (Romans 10:9-10). When we confess He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 Peter 1:9). Whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved (Romans 10:13). Matthew 6:12 says, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” We are to ask God to forgive us for what we have done against His will.

What do we confess?

Any thought, word, or deed against the will of God is a sin that we need to confess before a Holy God. Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgement.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgement. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire” (Matthew 5:21-22). This brings the level of offense against God from actually murdering someone to the level of just saying, “You fool!” He says these same things about adultery, “…whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (v. 28). The sins against God that we need to confess are in our thoughts and not just in our actions. We are not pure from sin as we were born into our sinful nature inherited by us through the first man Adam (Romans 5:12). Any sin will keep us from heaven. All sins are equally damning as any sin requires the same punishment, death (Romans 6:23). So it does not matter that you are a “good person” or that you have not murdered anyone, if you fibbed when you were a todler, punishment must be administered for that offense. If you accept Jesus as your Savior, that punishment happened to Jesus on the cross so you do not have to pay it yourself.