Ps. 130:3-4 LORD, if you kept a record of our
sins, who, O LORD, could ever survive? But you offer forgiveness, that we might
learn to fear you.
If I had to single out which of God's blessings
mean the most to me, this would be right at the top of the list. I have sinned
a lot in my lifetime. I have done and said things that I wish I could take back
or forget. I still do things that are sin to God. If the Lord were to keep
track of each one and record them to hold them against me, I would have zero
chance of ever making it to heaven.
But, instead of keeping a record of my wrong
doings, the Lord forgives me. Not only does He forgive me, He wipes the slate
clean with a permanent cleaning solution (His blood) so that they are remembered
no more. Only the Lord is able to do that. We can forgive, but we can't forget
everything. Forgiveness is the ultimate proof of love. We don't deserve to be
forgiven. We don't deserve the opportunity to learn how to live in fellowship
with God and to fear Him.
When we are forgiven by the Lord, we must
forgive ourselves. We can't undo what has been done and said. We accept God's
forgiveness and make a covenant with Him that we will move forward in grace and
not live in the past. We let go of the pain and sufferings we may have caused.
We let go of the consequences of our sins. Where we can, we strive to right the
wrong of what we have done, but where we can't, we let the blood of Christ set
us free from the past.
When we are forgiven by the Lord, we extend His
forgiveness to others. They may not change their ways, but we can change ours.
We can in Christ forgive and learn to love those who wrong us. In fact, we
can't really love the Lord unless we do.
When we are forgiven, we learn how to fear the
Lord. We learn how to respect Him for who He is. We learn how to keep Him in
our thoughts and let him govern our lives. We learn how to pay attention to
what He says and do it.
Thank you, Lord, for amazing grace.
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