You know the very first question God asks in the Bible… “Where are you?” When Adam and Eve sinned they hid from God but He immediately came looking from them – seeking to restore their relationship. God didn’t ask ‘what did you do’. He already knew that information. He asked, ‘where are you’. Obviously, he already knew that information too! The reason God asks ‘where are you’ is because He wanted to see if they would invite Him into their failure. Same with us: Unconfessed sin is like a stone in your shoe; you’ll have no peace until you get it out in the open; and get rid of it. God cannot forgive sin until it is acknowledged… (Have you been rude, selfish, unkind, swearing, looking at stuff you shouldn’t be looking at? Have you cheated, been unfair, mean; have you lied or gossiped…) As Rick Warren says, “Jesus knows the things we have done wrong, but he didn’t come to rub them in. He came to rub them out. He didn’t come to condemn us; he came to change us, restore us. A clean slate is possible!”
Rick Warren, God’s Power To Change Your Life, 2006, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, p.14