Tell God: ‘I have sinned!’ Is it really so hard to confess your sin? If you do not judge yourself, you will have as judge the devil. Hurry up and do not leave him this work; because truly his job is to be a judge. Hurry up and clean the sin; because you have a judge that cannot be kept silent.

Have you sinned? The only thing that I ask from is this: go to church and tell God with repentance: ‘I have sinned’. Because it is written that: ‘Review the past for me, let us argue the matter together; state the case for your innocence’ (Isaiah 43:26). Confess your sin in order to be forgiven. You don’t need much effort, neither many words, nor many expenses, nor anything like that.  Just a phrase: ‘I have sinned’.

(Translated from Sfântul Ioan Gură de Aur, Problemele vieții, Editura Egumenița, Galați, 2007, p. 76)