Daily Devotions for Difficult Days [52] I will forgive your sins

Sorry seems to be the Hardest Word

Elton John, in his younger years, released a song with the words "Sorry seems to be the hardest word." When couples fall out, was his meaning, saying sorry can sometimes be hard to do.

As a general rule followers of Jesus do not find it hard to confess their sins.

Receiving forgiveness is the difficult part. Experiencing God's forgiveness is the bit they sruggle with. Accepting that they have indeed been forgiven is where the struggle lies.

And so today, as we consider the wonderful promises God makes to us, we need to hear 1 John 1:9: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

Why we struggle with receiving forgiveness

There are at least five reasons we struggle with receiving forgiveness.

First of all, we know ourselves too well. In solitary confinement with all the time in the world to think, Richard Wumbrand called himself the worst sinner he knew. He had been imprisoned under both Hitler and Stalin, but did not name either of them as Sinner Number One. Instead, like the apostle Paul before him, Wurmbrand thought of himself as the "chief of sinners." 

We know our own thoughts and attitudes, our words and deeds; and we wonder how God could ever forgive us.

Secondly, we sometimes judge God by human standards. We may be struggling to forgive others or others may not have not forgiven us and we wonder therefore if God is like people.

Thirdly, we know that true repentance means not sinning again. We know that confession without deep repentance is not what God desires of us. And yet we also know that we come back to God with the same sorrys again and again. We wonder if God's forgiveness is extended to repeat offenders.

Fourthly, we have a faculty called memory. We wonder how sins that stain our simple memories do not also come before the God who knows all things.

And finally, we are self-righteous. We somehow want to atone for sins ourselves. We want to balance out our sins with perhaps some equivalent-weight good works. We find it hard to receive freely!

With all these uncertainties, what does God promise? Let's hear 1 John 1:9 again: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

Let us note, briefly three facets of this wonderful promise. First it is a concrete promise, a certain promise, a clearcut promise.

A Concrete Promise

There are no ifs or buts or conditions laid upon the promise. God says to all of his children if you confess your sins, if you own up to them, if you mention them to me, then I will forgive you. No sins are excluded. No thoughts, attitudes, words or actions are banned from this promise.

We need to accept God at his word here and believe his promise!

Secondly, this is a cleansing promise.

A Cleansing Promise

God promises to do more than forgive our sins, he promises to cleanse us from all unrighteousness! God always does more than we ask him! We ask for forgiveness and he adds cleansing! What does he mean? He means at least that the constant seeking of forgiveness is used by the Holy Spirit to develop in our hearts a hatred and loathing of sin, which in turn leads to genuine repentance. If we never talk about our sin to God, if we cover it up, then it will only grow in our hearts and pollute our souls.

What a wonderful forgiveness-bonus! As we ask for forgiveness we get cleansing too.

A Christ-centred Promise

Finally, we should note that this is a Christ-centred promise. John says that "God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins." God is not snapping his fingers when we ask for forgiveness and merely uttering the word "forgiven." Such a "god" would be unjust! No John goes on to say: "If anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defence - Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins."

The basis of this remarkable forgiveness is the cross of Jesus Christ.

At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away,
It was there by faith I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day!

The basis of God's promise is that, in point of fact, all our sins, including the ones we are saying sorry for today, have already been paid for in full. Through the suffering of our Saviour our sin has been atoned.

In a blog on forgiveness, we don't want to add guilt, but surely it is wrong of us to continue wondering if our sins have been forgiven? If we have owned up to them and confessed them, surely we must now let them go and gladly accept the gracious promise of God and experience the total forgiveness that comes from God.

This is the Gospel! Free pardon for all who will believe!

Let's share it with the world!

A SONG FOR THE DAY
Our song for the day encourages us to share the Gospel with others.

God forgave my sin in Jesus' name.
I've been born again in Jesus' name
And in Jesus' name I come to you
To share his love as he told me to.

He said 'Freely, freely you have received;, freely, freely give.
Go in my name, and because you believe others will know that I live.

All pow'r is giv'n in Jesus' name
In earth and heav'n in Jesus name
And in Jesus' name I come to you
To share his pow'r as he told me to.

He said 'Freely, freely you have received;, freely, freely give.
Go in my name, and because you believe others will know that I live.

God gives us life in Jesus' name
He lives in us in Jesus' name
And in Jesus' name I come to you
To share his peace as he told me to.

You can sing along HERE

Carol Owens

A PRAYER FOR TODAY

It is hard to beat some of the liturgical prayers used in the Church of England. Here is a helpful prayer of penitence:

Almighty God,

Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

maker of all things, judge of all people,

we acknowledge and lament our many sins

and the wickedness we have committed time after time,

by thought, word and deed against your divine majesty.

 

We have provoked your righteous anger

and your indignation against us.

We earnestly repent,

and are deeply sorry for these our wrongdoings;

the memory of them weighs us down,

the burden of them is too great for us to bear.

Have mercy upon us,

have mercy upon us, most merciful Father.

For your Son our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake,

forgive us all that is past;

and grant that from this time forward

we may always serve and please you in newness of life,

to the honour and glory of your name;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Photo by Felix Koutchinski on Unsplash