It’s Just Forgiveness
Posted by Ryan Geiger on April 3, 2009 · 1 Comment
A title that will catch our attention because it is so much more than just forgiveness. I have had the chance recently to do a message a few times on guilt and shame and so far every time has been the same, people broken and God glorified. The pain that so many people feel every day could be eliminated if we truly understood God’s forgiveness.
Every day I come to God and beg God for forgiveness. Usually I come to God with the same list of items that I have screwed up on. Every day I walk away feeling guilty having to come to God with the same problems. What I realized a couple months ago is that every time I come to God with my junk it is new to Him. See the day before when I came to God He forgave me and He tells us that “our sins are as far from the East as they are the West.” This means that God CHOOSES to forgive us and by forgiving us they have been removed. He chooses to no longer remembers them, so everyday when I come to God and ask for forgiveness “again”, I wonder if God looks at me and says what again?
Today is a new day and the moment that I asked yesterday I was forgiven, just as I am today. So I don’t need to walk away feeling guilty that I keep messing up but I can walk away thankful for undeserved grace and forgiveness. For me the key is to fail forward where I go to God less and less with the same junk because I am becoming more and more like Him.
Are you holding on to guilt and shame from your past that has already been forgiven? Today choose to forgive yourself and do what God does and forget about it, move on and remember today is a new day. You are a new creation, old things are in the past and your future is clear.
A pastor friend of mine told me a couple of years ago that the reason we shouldn’t feel guilty about bringing the same “junk” to God is because we’re still bringing it … that means we haven’t given up or given in … we’re still struggling against our sin and God honors our perseverance.