If I had to single out
which of God's blessings means 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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