How many times have you heard, You are forgiven.? As a Christian, weve heard this THOUSANDS of times! Even if you are new to the faith, youve heard it a lot. Your sins are forgiven. He remembers your sins no more. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins... I could go on, and on, FORGIVENESS was Gods idea! Now, this post is not going to be about your difficulty in forgiving somebody else. That was something that I personally struggled with, and had to do, (and have to still do), as a Follower of Christ. IT IS 100% REQUIRED THAT YOU FORGIVE EVERYBODY. NO EXCEPTIONS. So if you are struggling with forgiveness, you need to look no further than what Jesus did for you, personally, on The Cross. *If you are STILL STRUGGLING with forgiveness, begin to think of everyone, absolutely everyone with love. Stop looking at what they did, and start looking to what Jesus did. But Matt, you just DONT KNOW!!!!.... No, I dont, but God does. And He is a God of justice and vindication.... Your time will come. Bear this cross of unconditional forgiveness, for Jesus. Because He wants you to. You are not saying that what they did was right, you are saying that you forgiven them for it. They didnt stop Gods plan for your life! He ALWAYS makes beauty from your ashes, when you have Christ! Fake it til you make it. Eventually, Christ will help you not just make it through, but you will THRIVE in forgiveness! But what I wanted to talk about today, is not so much GIVING forgiveness, but OUR ACCEPTANCE of Gods forgiveness. If we know that we know that we know, THAT WE ARE FORGIVEN, then why do we not act like it? Why do we tuck our tails so much? Why do we say, We are not worthy.? DONT YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE BECAUSE OF JESUS?!! 100% FORGIVEN AND FREE! CHILDREN OF GOD! The Bible says that we are adopted into His family (Ephes. 1:5), that we are HEIRS OF GOD (Rom. 8:17)! WE ARE PART OF GODS ETERNAL FAMILY, STARTING NOW, BECAUSE OF JESUS 100% FORGIVENESS! And if we are Gods kids, like the Bible says, then we can have confidence like our kids have in us! My kids make mistakes, all the time. They mess up. We correct them and point out what the problem is. But just because they mess up, they dont walk up to Jennifer and me and say, Mom, Dad, I know I messed up bad. Im completely unworthy now. Can I please stay punished and ashamed? NO!!!! They know we love them no matter what they do! They forget that they even got in trouble in the first place, and they come ask us Whats for dinner? THEY UNDERSTAND WHAT IS EXPECTED OF THEM, but just because they mess up, doesnt mean they are now not worthy of our love and kindness. They still know that they are TOP NOTCH in our book! EXTREMELY SPECIAL AND DEARLY LOVED!! THEY ARE CONFIDENT!! This is what God does for us, because we love and believe in Jesus. So why are we still so ashamed to talk about WHAT we are forgiven for?... Ashamed because of our past? If we are trying to please Jesus, He can actually USE our flaws FOR HIM! Once we step out of the entanglement of our sin, we can actually REACH BACK and say, Look, I was there. I know what you are going through, and there is a better way. When we ACCEPT this forgiveness, we have SUCH A DEEP DESIRE TO CHANGE, and GOD SEES THAT! He is gonna bless you for it! And if you will shred off that sin, whatever it may be, of the flesh or of the heart, the sooner the better! BUT EVEN AS YOU ARE STILL STRUGGLING AND TRYING, GOD IS STILL WITH YOU!! Your faith in Christ, FINISHED YOUR FORGIVENESS!! The Bible says that we are a NEW CREATION IN CHRIST. It says that THE OLD IS GONE AND THE NEW HAS COME! If you havent gotten over that hump, KEEP TRYING, YOU WILL!!! Youve never failed until you have given up!! AND EVEN THEN, JESUS WILL REACH OUT AND SNATCH YOU UP AGAIN! And when we come to know Jesus, so many of us CONTINUE to live as if we have to KEEP EARNING this forgiveness! WE DONT! You didnt earn it in the first place! It was a gift! And if you didnt earn this gift, you cant lose it either. Jesus said on The Cross: It is finished. (John 19:30) So Matt, you are saying that I can do whatever the heck I want, because Im forgiven either way?.... No, of course not. Is that how you treat those you love? Let me ask you this: Who is it that you love? Who is it that loves you? A boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife, child, friend, neighbor, relative?.... Whoever it is, you LOVE THEM, and THEY love you too! You know this for a fact and you enjoy this relationship. So just WHY would you want to do something to hurt them?... I mean, after all, you know that there is nothing that you can do to get them to stop loving you, it is a DEEP LOVE, unconditional, so just why would you want to do something to harm them? To hurt them? To bring them sadness?... That is abusing your relationship, and that is something that YOU should address. Now, you could say, But, they did this to me. So their sin blots out yours?... Thats not how it works. And that would also set me up to say, Jesus HAS NEVER done you wrong! He never sinned. He died a death that we should be dying, BECAUSE of our sin! So we should hold Him in and even HIGHER REGARD than our closest loved one! And them, love THEM like Jesus does us! So if He did this for us, we must do it for everyone. Which is LOVE them, FORGIVE THEM, and do our very best not to bring them any harm. If we feel like this is impossible, then that is the very thing, DEEP DOWN IN YOUR OWN HEART, that Jesus wants to purge from you. Jesus is going to love you any way. But your actions are hurting Him. However, this is NOT going to change His love or forgiveness for you. Those things will always remain. The Bible says that NOTHING CAN SEPARATE YOU FROM THE LOVE OF GOD WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS (Romans 8)! Nothing! You are forgiven and loved, NO MATTER WHAT YOUR ACTIONS ARE, because of your faith in Jesus! Now, because this love is SO AMAZING AND UNCONDITIONAL; BECAUSE YOU ARE FORGIVEN AND FREE, you should have a respect and reverence for Jesus, for everything He is, and for what He has done. He knows your heart. He sees your effort. He wants you to accept His forgiveness ON SUCH A DEEP LEVEL that your entire life changes, for Him! When you finally do accept this forgiveness, and you let it go deep down into your soul, a transformation takes place; you realize just how LOVING Jesus is, and for the first time ever, you WEEP. You FEEL just how DEEP AND WIDE this loving forgiveness is. You now HAVE to talk about it! You now HAVE to sing about it! You now HAVE to change everything you have been, that was against Jesus, all that stuff that He forgave you for. You stay at CONSTANT BATTLE with it, through Christ, until it is not just weak, BUT DEAD AND BURIED in the ground! So today, my friends, accept the love and FORGIVENESS of Christ! Yes! Accept it! You may have woken up feeling like you dont have it, BUT YOU DO! I dont care about what you did yesterday, or last night, if you have CHRIST, you are STILL FORGIVEN! Do you feel convicted about some sin in your life? That is Jesus saying, TRY AGAIN! If somebody has convinced you that you are not forgiven BECAUSE of your sin, THEY LIED TO YOU! So TRY AGAIN. Try again. Try again. You are gonna get it one day! God knows your heart! He sees your effort! He knows what you are going through! Begin to seek Jesus HARDER!! Look to Christ for all you need, not people or things, and the changes will come eventually! You havent failed, JESUS HAS ALREADY WON, for you! So stay focused on Him and give it another go, by KNOWING that you are already forgiven! To this, ALL OF US ARE CALLED! Have a blessed day!
Posted on: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 15:01:59 +0000
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