Forgiveness

I was blessed by a simple reminder of God's mercy through Steve's blog post this morning. It is good to dwell on God’s merciful and gracious forgiveness to me. And in light of that, I am able to fully forgive others. God has indeed dealt mercifully and bountifully with me. I want to grow in my awareness of that and then overflow with grace to those around me.

Do I feel it is hard to forgive because of an offense done to me? How much more have I offended God. Do I hold back full forgiveness because the person did not really seem sorry enough or see their sin as clearly as I think I do? How much deeper does God see my sin and how much more blind am I to my injury against his holiness and justice. Does the cost of extending forgiveness seem too much, especially if it is not appreciated as I deem appropriate?  Nobody ever has or ever will pay as high a cost as God for my salvation. Do I wait to forgive until they ask for it? Christ died on the cross to forgive me, and he did not wait for me to come asking for his forgiveness and turn in repentence. He first loved and forgave me. Is an offense repeated just too many times for me to continue to extend grace? With every passing day, I continually and repeatedly commit the same sins against my God. He does not withhold his mercy, and his love is not conditional.

Several audio messages have been beneficial to me recently in relation to these thoughts. Allen Snapp's message (Sarah's Hope) at our church on May 8th spoke grace for forgiveness and faith when another continually sins against you.

Last week I listened to a message from Ken Sande at KingsWay Community church called Breath Grace. This encouraged me to hold the gospel out to others in a compelling way and flee from the temptation to promote mere moralism. Rather, I want to "breath in grace" from God and turn to breath it out to others. I do not have it in myself without first receiving it from Christ.

This week I benefited by Andy Farmer preaching Bringing the Gospel to Bear in Conflict. Simply seeing my offense as the greatest and seeing my sin more and more is huge and builds my humility and thankfulness for how gracious God has been to me. I never want to look more at another's sin than I look at my own before God.

God's forgiveness is great. It is greatly undeserved by this wretched sinner. How I want to daily live with an awareness of his holiness and the outrageous kindness of his mercy and kindness to me.