Just admitting who we are and our need for God's transforming grace in our lives. There's freedom in truth, no matter how ugly the truth may be. At the moment of confession, we begin to break free. As the word of truth is spoken, the many tangles of long-lived lies fall away. When a sinner makes a sacrifice acceptable to God a broken spirit, and a broken and contrite heart then the process of divine blotting and washing and cleansing and purging gets underway, a process that leads quickly and completely to a clean heart and a right spirit.
Nothing can happen without the truth.
No cleansing can occur unless you come clean and confess the truth about your life. No inner wisdom or joy or gladness can really be experienced until you admit that you're in need of forgiveness. I'm really a sinner. God desires to set sinners free. God isn't out to bust us, but instead to blot us to blot out our transgressions, wash us thoroughly from our iniquity, and cleanse us from our sin.