I need Confession!

Last sunday the 24th we had a Bible group to understand the significance of the 'Sacrament Of Confession'.I was deeply touched by the discussion and it convinced me that confession is something that will always help me reconcile with God & His people.I sometimes wonder why cant we confess our sins directly to God,wont he forgive our sins ?A'int our God merciful enough to forgive our sins? These questions must be in the minds of many people, well last week's Bible group helped me understand the biblical significance of confession and will help me from no more search for words when people try to question my faith on the point of confession.
Firstly when did confession start ? Confession has evolved we could say over times & ages.If we associate confesson to a practice only in the catholic church then we must read 'Leviticus chap:5', it speaks about confession and here a priest is making atonement on behalf of the people for their sins.Hebrews 10:1 tells us that the law in the old testment was a shadow of the reality to come and yes the reality was that Jesus - the high priest made atonement for the sins of all the mankind in the new testament.Then the obvious question is that if Christ is the priest who forgives and atones for our sin what is the role of 'Religious Priests' who are often the people we confess to.Well 1 John 8 clearly mentions the need for confession of sin to one another(It explicitily doesnt mention that we need to confess only to God and God alone) and when we say one another can we go to each other and confess our sins(havent seen or heard any such thing before) but James5:13 clearly tells that it is the elders of the church who are authorized by God to forgive sins and listen to confession.Elder in hebrew means 'Prispitos' meaning the 'Priest'.
God in his abundant mercy has given few selected human beings the power to forgive the sins (read Mat 9:1-8 & John 20:20-23)
A confession to a priest means a confession to Christ himself and God in his mercy has granted our priests the power to remove our sins in the name of Lord Jesus. God will forgive our sins the very second we are sorry for our sins and I dont think God will ever wait for a person to go for a confession and only then forgive him, no that aint our God.But confession helps us reconcile with the church and thus Gods people , avoiding out negativity from impacting the lives of others and am sure that to do a good and honest confession we need to be humble to the core and God's teaching us a beautiful lesson of humbleness through the sacrament of confession.Confession will enable us to be like what Jesus wanted as to be = 'as perfect as our Father in Heaven'.
These were few things that I understood & carried into life after the confession bible study group! Next week we will be studying biblically the truth about 'Mary - The Mother Of God'.