Blessed Forgiveness

Tuesday, August 6, 2024

Blessed Forgiveness

As we have been learning, David was a man after God’s own heart, but he had his own set of troubles just like everyone else.  Like so many of us, at this time David had pretty much run his life into the ground. He was guilty of adultery and murder.  I imagine he saw what was coming.  Have you ever been there?  Have you ever been in the middle of something you knew was not right and you knew that it would all blow up one day? Sometimes sin has such a grip on us that without Divine intervention, we are never going to get away from it. 

There comes a time when we can’t keep going in our sin anymore. There comes a time when God brings us face to face with the sin in our lives and face to face with the reality of that sin.  We can live in sin and deny that we are sinning for a time, but that won’t work forever.  God deals with us at some point, and David was at that point.  Guilty.  Ashamed. Alone.  Realizing his sin and seeking God’s forgiveness.  David must have felt a little hopeless, but David knew God offers hope in forgiveness.  

Our hope is not found in our circumstances.  So often our circumstances seem impossible and certainly make forgiveness feel impossible. But our hope is found in the empty grave because that empty grave is what makes forgiveness even possible. The empty grave is the promise of forgiveness – our forgiveness for our sins and the only hope of the possibility of being able to forgive others in our humanness.  Because He has forgiven us, we can forgive others.  

The need of forgiveness, or an awareness of sin and the damage it has done, leaves us crying out for freedom from guilt and shame.  God's blessings are based in relationship with Him. Forgiveness is the doorway for that relationship. The gifts of forgiveness are being surrounded by lovingkindness, joy and gladness. God has dealt with our sin on the cross.  The penalty is paid for those who will acknowledge their sin, express their guilt and claim God’s provision. See your sin as God sees it, and do with it what God wants done, and receive BLESSED FORGIVENESS.

Reconciliation with God 
It is important to remember that Holy God does not need to reconciled to man, but man needs to be reconciled to God. God has not sinned against man but we are alienated from Him because of our sin. Even though God does not need a relationship with us, He has a desire for a relationship and seeks to reconcile with us. 

The Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death. There must be a payment for our sins.  At the cross we were forgiven by Christ and offered reconciliation. His shed blood on the cross paid the debt we owe for our sin and cleansed us to be whiter than snow. 

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21

The debt for sin was paid, and if we accept the gift of salvation, we are reconciled with God instantly.

We do not “get right” with God, but receive the gift of being “made right” from Him.

It is a gift given to us from God. He is the gift-giver. Thus, He is the one who sets the terms for how to receive this free gift and then makes the offer to us. 

Reconciliation is forming of a new relationship. 

Like a Phoenix that rises from the ashes, our relationship can rise from the ashes of our past failures. The reconciled God justifies by grace the sinner who accepts the means of reconciliation. Those who surrender to Jesus and allow the Holy Spirit into their life are transformed into a new creation. 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:17-19

 

 

Restoration With God

 Monday, August 5, 2024

Be gracious to me, God, according to your faithful love; according to your abundant compassion, blot out my rebellion.Completely wash away my guilt and cleanse me from my sin. For I am conscious of my rebellion, and my sin is always before me. Against you—you alone—I have sinned and done this evil in your sight. So you are right when you pass sentence; you are blameless when you judge Indeed, I was guilty when I was born; I was sinful when my mother conceived me. Psalm 51:1-5

David was told that he was anointed and chosen to be the King when he was just a teenage boy tending sheep. It would not be for many, many more years that he would sit on that throne. Psalm 78:70- 72 says He chose David his servant and took him from the sheep pens; he brought him from tending ewes to be shepherd over his people Jacob — over Israel, his inheritance.He shepherded them with a pure heart and guided them with his skillful hands. David was a man after God’s own heart, but he was also human. He made some bad choices that had some tragic consequences, but God forgave him of his sin and continued to use him to lead His people. 

When David was King, one night on his balcony he spotted a woman bathing. Her name was Bathsheeba and David followed his fleshly desires for her instead of surrendering his thoughts and feelings to God and walking away. This path led him to adultery and murder, and resulted in the death of his and Bathsheeba’s son. In Psalm 51, we find the prayer for restoration that David prayed to God. 

Sin always takes a toll. None of us will escape sin unscathed and sometimes the consequences of our sin spreads to the ones we love. It feels hopeless and like all is lost, but we always have hope in Christ. We can recover from sin and be forgiven. Unfortunately, sometimes we, and our loved ones, are affected by sin for a lifetime. David and Bathsheeba lost their son as a result of their sin, but they were forgiven and cleansed form their sin by God. God takes away our sin but He doesn’t always take away the consequences. Of course the best time to think about the scope of the consequence is before we sin, but like David, we often act first and realize what we have done later. 

When we sin how can we take steps toward spiritual recovery for God to do His work in our lives again? The first step in restoration with God is always to confess our sin to God. Admit that we have sinned and lay it all out before Him and ask and receive His forgiveness. He knows all things – everything we have done and will do – but He wants us to confess that we realize our sin. Acknowlegding that we have done wrong is only the first step – and only words – unless it is followed by repentence. Repentence means we turn away from the sin we have been involved in (completely going in the opposite direction) and to stop doing it. If we continue in our sin, we are not repenting from that sin. True repentence is required for us to live a life as a Jesus follower. We cannot walk in sin and walk with Him as well. 

The consequences of sin can take us out if we let them. The shame alone can destroy us, let alone broken relationships, job loss, financial ruin, and so much more. Don’t let the consequences take the reconciliation you can have with God. Don’t let the shame, guilt, and pain keep you from experiencing the joy of salvation resotred. Our constant and never changing God waits for us to come back to Him and to resotre our relationship with Him.  

Is there unconfessed sin in your life that you need to acknowledge before God and receive His forgiveness? 

Are you carrying the burden of shame and guilt from the consequences? He is waiting for you, to take that burden and remind you who you are in Him. Don’t wait any longer, but run back to Him now.