As a younger man, I struggled with believing that the God who Saves, is the One who keeps. As the Devil rode with me in all of my pursuits, he whispered to me that God had lied. That He could not love someone who had done the deeds that I had done. As I saw angels fall and demons rejoice over the guilt in my heart, that I couldn't wash off or remove, I threw away the keys to the Kingdom not knowing if I ever really believed. The vilest of sinners had nothing on me, and I would come to church to cry out for the forgiveness that I needed, only to walk away stuck in my own prison. The darkness covered me and the fog of self-condemnation would not lift. As the pressures of a life lived for myself took their toll and my kingdom crumbled around me, I was introduced again to the Love that would Lift me. This sweet fragrance of Grace came flooding back to me, as a childhood memory was brought back to life and this dead man breathed again. I had mistaken a list of rules and trying to be good on my own as the means to which I would keep my eternal life. But along the way, the subscription seemed to have run out. I could outsin all of my best efforts and this crushing weight would not get any lighter along the way. I just added to it and the sack of sins I toted with me, always made it's way back into my hands. The altar that I had left it at would not give me freedom from it.
We must all give account and take responsibility for our sins, either in this life or in the life to come. How we deal with it is up to us, although many of us take different routes of belief to get there. Thankful for the dear friend who lovingly corrected my thoughts about God's Forgiveness, I began to attempt to walk with God for the first time. As I read the Scriptures, I found friends in the great but repentant sinners of His Word. I knew there was Hope for me! Dealing with our sins is a very personal matter and I discovered some passages that were extremely helpful to me. The way the writers expressed their gratefulness to the Great God who Saves and Forgives, made me glad to have these shared private moments to the same God that I wanted to serve. In the Psalms especially, I read thoughts about transgressions that I had not even thought of. Psalm 51 is probably one of the more famous ones that we hear about, with beautiful word pictures of a man on bended knee crying out to the God that he has sinned against. He asks for the Father to create a clean heart inside of him. Not a bad place to start at all. The writers also ask the Father of Unfailing Love to forgive the sins that they may not even be aware of and to keep them from deliberate sins (Psalm 19:12-13). Psalm 25 asks for the Father to not remember the sins of our youth, to forgive our many, many sins. In Psalm 32, the writer is thankful for God's mercy in awaiting him to finally confess his sins. Psalm 103:3 states that He has removed our sins as far as the East is from the West and I am so glad of this. [The psalms are deeply personal, dealing not only with sins but also enemies and different thoughts of praise to the Creator and Savior. I highly recommend taking some time to read through it. You may be surprised at what you find in them.]
So all of this talk of sin can make us weary, but they must be confessed. Jesus, in giving a model for prayer, said that we should confess our sins daily (Matthew 6:9-13). John says that He is faithful to forgive us of all of our sins (1 John 1:9). But we should also believe that He has paid the penalty for all of our sins and that He has forgotten the ones that we have confessed to Him (Hebrews 10:17). John also says that if we say that we have no sin, that we are liars (1 John 1:8). So addressing sin is necessary, remembering our sins is not. Dwelling on them signals that we have not believed correctly about Christ's work on the Cross. Colossians 2:13-14 says, “You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.” “Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sins are put out of sight.” Paul writes to us in Romans 4:7. So we can tell that God would not want for us to remember our transgressions anymore than He does. Doing so can be fatal to any attempt to walk with Him.
What a false perception of God's Love and Forgiveness we can have when we lean on our own understanding or have a half-truth taught to us. The issues that I was wrestling with are behind me now and there are things that I have forever settled in my heart with the Savior. He is teaching me new things and although I am still sorrowful for the sins I have commited and that cost His life, I can move forward in confidence that He is Faithful and has Forgiven and Forgotten each one of them. As I desire to draw closer to Him, He sends new Truths that I enjoy learning now. As I struggle with attitudes and actions that are not representative of Him, He gently reveals them to me for confession. He is Loving and Patient with us, even when we are not with ourselves. On those days, the mirror is a liar and we can Trust that He is Faithful to Forgive us. We can believe that we are Dearly Loved and Greatly Treasured beyond anything we can imagine. That because we still sin does not make us sinners. That we are Holy and Counted Righteous because of the Finished Work on the Cross. What a Savior!
As you and I walk with Him and have times when we need to confess, consider journaling your responses to His Loving Call. Afterwards, check out a couple of the Psalms and see if you don't have something in common with those writers of old. You may just find that you are writing your own psalms without even knowing it! I was certainly surprised that many of the things I had felt for so long were already written is His Word. As humans we find ways to express our love, remorse, regret and anger to a God who is Always Present, Always Listening and Always Able to Forgive us and Love us through our mess. Because God will always be willing to listen to our psalms!
We must all give account and take responsibility for our sins, either in this life or in the life to come. How we deal with it is up to us, although many of us take different routes of belief to get there. Thankful for the dear friend who lovingly corrected my thoughts about God's Forgiveness, I began to attempt to walk with God for the first time. As I read the Scriptures, I found friends in the great but repentant sinners of His Word. I knew there was Hope for me! Dealing with our sins is a very personal matter and I discovered some passages that were extremely helpful to me. The way the writers expressed their gratefulness to the Great God who Saves and Forgives, made me glad to have these shared private moments to the same God that I wanted to serve. In the Psalms especially, I read thoughts about transgressions that I had not even thought of. Psalm 51 is probably one of the more famous ones that we hear about, with beautiful word pictures of a man on bended knee crying out to the God that he has sinned against. He asks for the Father to create a clean heart inside of him. Not a bad place to start at all. The writers also ask the Father of Unfailing Love to forgive the sins that they may not even be aware of and to keep them from deliberate sins (Psalm 19:12-13). Psalm 25 asks for the Father to not remember the sins of our youth, to forgive our many, many sins. In Psalm 32, the writer is thankful for God's mercy in awaiting him to finally confess his sins. Psalm 103:3 states that He has removed our sins as far as the East is from the West and I am so glad of this. [The psalms are deeply personal, dealing not only with sins but also enemies and different thoughts of praise to the Creator and Savior. I highly recommend taking some time to read through it. You may be surprised at what you find in them.]
So all of this talk of sin can make us weary, but they must be confessed. Jesus, in giving a model for prayer, said that we should confess our sins daily (Matthew 6:9-13). John says that He is faithful to forgive us of all of our sins (1 John 1:9). But we should also believe that He has paid the penalty for all of our sins and that He has forgotten the ones that we have confessed to Him (Hebrews 10:17). John also says that if we say that we have no sin, that we are liars (1 John 1:8). So addressing sin is necessary, remembering our sins is not. Dwelling on them signals that we have not believed correctly about Christ's work on the Cross. Colossians 2:13-14 says, “You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.” “Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sins are put out of sight.” Paul writes to us in Romans 4:7. So we can tell that God would not want for us to remember our transgressions anymore than He does. Doing so can be fatal to any attempt to walk with Him.
What a false perception of God's Love and Forgiveness we can have when we lean on our own understanding or have a half-truth taught to us. The issues that I was wrestling with are behind me now and there are things that I have forever settled in my heart with the Savior. He is teaching me new things and although I am still sorrowful for the sins I have commited and that cost His life, I can move forward in confidence that He is Faithful and has Forgiven and Forgotten each one of them. As I desire to draw closer to Him, He sends new Truths that I enjoy learning now. As I struggle with attitudes and actions that are not representative of Him, He gently reveals them to me for confession. He is Loving and Patient with us, even when we are not with ourselves. On those days, the mirror is a liar and we can Trust that He is Faithful to Forgive us. We can believe that we are Dearly Loved and Greatly Treasured beyond anything we can imagine. That because we still sin does not make us sinners. That we are Holy and Counted Righteous because of the Finished Work on the Cross. What a Savior!
As you and I walk with Him and have times when we need to confess, consider journaling your responses to His Loving Call. Afterwards, check out a couple of the Psalms and see if you don't have something in common with those writers of old. You may just find that you are writing your own psalms without even knowing it! I was certainly surprised that many of the things I had felt for so long were already written is His Word. As humans we find ways to express our love, remorse, regret and anger to a God who is Always Present, Always Listening and Always Able to Forgive us and Love us through our mess. Because God will always be willing to listen to our psalms!
RSS Feed
