The Five Words That Changed Everything

In 1952, a young minister named William Hull stood before his small congregation in Albany, Georgia, and did something no one expected. He had been caught embezzling from the church building fund — not thousands, but enough to cover his wife's medical bills during a difficult pregnancy. The deacons had confronted him privately the night before, offering him a quiet resignation and a sealed letter of recommendation. A clean exit. No one outside the board would ever know.

Instead, Hull walked to the pulpit that Sunday morning and said five words: "I have sinned against God."

No qualifications. No explanation about the medical bills. No pivot to how the church budget was mismanaged. Just naked confession, standing in the open where everyone could see.

What happened next stunned even the deacons. The congregation wept. They forgave him. They took up a collection for his wife's care that very morning.

David could have done what powerful men always do. He could have justified, rationalized, or silenced Nathan altogether. He was the king — who would have stopped him? Instead, he offered the most unadorned confession in Scripture: "I have sinned against the Lord." No footnotes. No conditions. And the Lord, through Nathan, met those five words with something David did not deserve: "The Lord has put away your sin."

Forgiveness from the Almighty never waits for a polished speech. It waits for an honest one.