God is moved with compassion for us, he greets us with joy. We can stop trying to prove ourselves to God. We can begin to allow ourselves to receive God's love. Spiritual Disciplines That Encourage Honesty and Grace One of the things we have learned from our spiritual distress is that developing a spiritual life rooted in honesty and grace doesn't just happen by chance. We have found, for example, that the discipline of confession is particularly helpful in recovery.
Confession can, of course, become a ritualized, compulsive act.
It is, however, a practice that 12-step fellowships use with powerful effect. Confession involves an honest, public expression of who I am. One of the powerful elements of therapy or participating in a support group is the fact that simply showing up is a confession of our need. Confession helps us to practice honesty in the presence of people who will not add to our shame. Testimony is another discipline which many of us have found to be helpful.