Forgiven.

Where is the god who can compare with you—  wiping the slate clean of guilt,

Turning a blind eye, a deaf ear, to the past sins of your purged and precious people?

You don’t nurse your anger and don’t stay angry long,   for mercy is your specialty.

That’s what you love most.

And compassion is on its way to us. You’ll stamp out our wrongdoing.

You’ll sink our sins  to the bottom of the ocean.

Micah 7:18-19

Cast your mind back to the last time you truly forgave someone? Do you know what it means to forgive someone? How about forgiving yourself? Do you know how to “forgive and forget”?

As humans, we really don't know how to forgive. It’s just not possible. All it takes it for another person to pass us on the platform at a busy station and brush against our bag and our blood begins to boil! I know - I’m guilty! This is something really minor, imagine if someone really wronged us? It almost feels like we’d lose our minds. Forgiveness is truly is a foreign concept for the best of us.

What would you do if every bad thing, you were punished for? Consider that. Perhaps you should keep a tally of all the ‘wrong’ things you do. Alarmed at the thought? Yeah. I would be too. That horrible thought, that harsh word out of place, the judgemental look you gave, that little white lie you told your colleague about not being upset about something he/she did? Imagine if there was a punishment each time? We’d all live miserable lives, inflicting lashes on ourselves each time we carry our a “bad deed”. We’d be damned with no sense of hope. If God did not forgive sinners, heaven would be empty.

Perhaps you should scroll the top of this post and read the verse again. The God of the universe does not remember our bad deeds and hold them against us - he wipes our slates clean and sinks them to the bottom of the ocean. Did you know that man still cannot find the bottom of the ocean? That's remarkable. This means that our wrongs are cast so far that we couldn't try and bring them up to God if we tried. A perfect God forgetting? Really? Surely He has an impeccable memory. Yet we still go fishing and cannot let go of things and forgive ourselves. We say “but God, how could you possibly forgive me for this bad thing I've done, I’ve done it so many times! Not even my family will forgive me”.

Picture the sun rising in the East and setting in the West - have you ever tried to chase the sun or measure the distance? It says in Psalm 103:12 that God has removed our transgressions from us, as far as the east is from the west.

It does not stop there. Not only does He forgive us, He shows us compassion! Forgiveness is a great gift in itself, but then to have compassion shown to us? That’s going the extra mile. He wants us to know we are loved, no matter what we have done to hurt Him.

We mans forgiveness seems illusive, Gods is never-ending.

Here’s what He says to you today:

“Forget about all the bad things you’ve done - I’ll take care of those. I don’t remember your wrongs, I put them somewhere you cannot find them. I don’t want you to look for them either. My forgiveness is limitless, I’ll forgive you over and over again and change you so you start to love the things I love and hate the things I hate. I’ll always be here to show you love when you do wrong - I love you beyond your good and bad deeds. I died for all you've done, all you’re doing and all you will do. Don’t worry about it all - I forgive you.”

Pray this prayer today:

God, sometimes I find it really hard to forgive myself. I just can’t wrap my head around some of the things I’ve done. It seems I can't forget them at times but I thank you for your forgiveness that cancels out all of my sins. Thank you for taking them far away from me and making me feel loved by you. Please give me the strength to be better person.”