None of us are perfect. We were born sinners. We made and make mistakes, some worse than others. Why can’t we forgive ourselves and believe we are forgiven? Why can’t we believe we are forgiven? The beauty of being a Christian is that we can repent of our sins, and God will forgive us. Jesus died on the Cross for us. We are born into sin, but unlike those living during the Old Testament dispensation, we will not be doomed to sin for all time. When Jesus died, the new dispensation began. We live under the law of the New Testament, not the Old Testament.
Paul was a Christian hater, he persecuted and murdered Christians, but God forgave him and make him his apostle. Paul referred to himself as the”chief of sinners” because of his wicked ways.
1This letter is from Paul, an apostle. I was not appointed by any group of people or any human authority, but by Jesus Christ himself and by God the Father, who raised Jesus from the dead. 4 Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, to rescue us from this evil world in which we live. 6 I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ…You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ. 13 You know what I was like when I followed the Jewish religion—how I violently persecuted God’s church. I did my best to destroy it. 15 But even before I was born, God chose me and called me by his marvelous grace. 20 I declare before God that what I am writing to you is not a lie. 22 And still, the churches in Christ that are in Judea didn’t know me personally. 23 All they knew was that people were saying, “The one who used to persecute us is now preaching the very faith he tried to destroy!”
Galatians 1:1-24
The things man has done are not revelations to God. He created us before we entered our Mother’s womb. He knew we would be challenged, He knew we would fail. He knew we would sin. He knew we would kill, steal, destroy, commit atrocities and crimes, yet He loves us so much, He sent His son to live, walk the earth, and then be given over to man to reconcile unforgivable sin. When Christ was crucified, we were forgiven of our sin. Yes, we have a sin nature and must work hard to separate our sinful desires from our being, but there are times and seasons when we fail and live an ungodly life. Thanks to God, we are not destined to remain in those sins for eternity. He gave us an out. We can repent from the heart, and He will forgive us.
But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
1 John 1:9 NLT
God always planned to rescue us. Can you accept His love for us, despite our wicked past? Despite everything, God wants our repentance to be genuine. The problem is that we have to believe God has forgiven us for everything we did against others and then, this is key – we have to forgive ourselves.
God wants us to change and leave behind the past. How do we do this? We have to believe if we want God to forgive us. There are rules (precepts) we must follow, and actions we must take to be forgiven.
We must,
- Believe that God will forgive us
- Repent of our sins (wicked acts)
- Forgive ourselves
- Stop looking back
Like Paul, God has a plan for our lives, but if we do not repent for our sins (wickedness), He cannot forgive us. If we do not ask for His forgiveness (repent) He cannot forgive us. Many of us repent, but do not forgive ourselves or truly believe God will forgive us because we think the sin (wicked acts) was too vile and we are eternally bad. We feel condemned by our own actions. The fact is we are wicked and we are sinners. The degree in which we sin differs from person-to-person. But none-the-less, God is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us of our wickedness. God saves hardened sinners, murders, and evil people. He gave us free-will to determine how we will live our lives, because of this, He allows us to sink into flagrant wickedness and then redeems us when we recognize our wicked ways and ask for His forgiveness.
Will you take time today to once and for all, acknowledge your sins before God, repent, believe you are forgiven, forgive yourself and walk into the grace and mercy our Lord provides, and walk the path He has designed for you, never looking back?
The reason God does not want us to look back is that when we look back, it opens the door to temptation and our return to our sinful state. My pastor shared with the congregation that we must run from temptation. We can not stand and engage it on any level if we do, we will lose. We must do as Forrest Grump was instructed to do, ‘Run Forrest Run’.
It is time that we forgive ourselves.
Once we repent, we must continue to look ahead and hear God tell us this is the way.
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and recognize when we are distracted.
But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are getting worried and upset about too many things.
atmosphere, the second heaven is the evil ones’ headquarters, and the third heaven is where God lives. (Derek Prince, pp 128)
enemy, like it or not. The battle is between good and evil, and we are the prize. Satan desires to keep us from all that God wants for us. He is the enemy of all people, followers of Christ or not.
It is our responsibility to learn to discern the battleground and figure out our strategy to succeed. Do we give up our time in prayer with the Lord to address the chaos the evil one created around us, or do we get up earlier, use our lunch time and go to bed a little later to maintain our prayer time? We have to learn to distinguish with our spiritual ears and eyes what is moving around us. “Discernment for the believer is seeing and understanding as God sees and understands. It is the ability to make godly judgments and right appraisals.” (Charles Stanley, pp 53)
and people lives are affected by our praying. Each of our prayers is requesting blessings and resolve to life’s situations and circumstances. The failure to pray for others and you leaves everyone prey to the evil ones’ plan for our lives, to remain slaves to him and the world.
or may take another form as God sees fit to advance you into the kingdom. Our prayers may be answered right away, sometime in the future, or not at all, but every prayer has impact and outcomes. We may see some answers to prayers and may not see others. It is all dependent upon how God sees fit to include us in the blessings.
Lisa’s Daily Inspirations 