trick of the devil?
more like commonsense. the devil gets blamed for everything these days.
Don't shrug it off so easily. I've wrestled with personal confession when I feel convicted to do otherwise. Some things I think the Lord agrees I don't need to be explicit about but sharing the struggle goes a long way for others that are also struggling.
Sharing his victory can be sooo helpful for encouragement and edification. I think there that private confession is definitely a first step but doing everything privately may in some way lead to stunted growth in community in some fashion.
I've just settled with a non-specific way of talking about it. Like you obviously know what I'm speaking about when I say "lust" or "tension" and I'm not 100% that maybe it's not the Lord with people describing in detail the things they have done. It could be possible that is why I continue to struggle, I don't know.
It's just hard to say and my mind/spirit is not made up on this issue. I'm certainly not for being explicit about any sin unless you trust that person quite well. To me it's kind of a need to know situation.
Like if you were in a Jonah moment and you knew why the storm was raging, you knew that it was the Lord's fury at you and you are causing everyone else to suffer because you are in rebellion against him then yes...in such a situation it would behoove you to "own it". Yes, I do think situations like these occur. Probably not with real storms but I've also had some pretty peculiar coincidences that even in super doubt mode caused me serious pause and check my behavior. Those things I'm not really going to speak on, except that conviction sometimes can be physical when you are ignoring the Lord. Plenty of OT examples, NT ones not so much except very obviously revelation.
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