Forgive and move on
"To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence.."
- Ephesians 1:6-8
What I wanted to talk about tonight is forgiveness. It's absolutely necessary to each of us to forgive, and be forgiven. God forgave us of every sin we've committed, even before we do them!! When we forgive others it opens up our very souls to accept God's forgiveness - the part where you feel his presence and comfort and the washing away of your sins to remove guilt and shame - that's we need to feel.
This is also the process we need to take when forgiving others. Now..forgiveness should be asked for, but it's not always asked is it? Sometimes we feel like people have wronged us, some have, but never ask for forgiveness. This raised a question to me..how many times have I wronged someone, including my Saviour, and have not asked for forgiveness? Many times. Forgiving someone is hard, but if we don't we harbour feelings of regret, hurt, anger and bitterness. Those very things block up our connection with God, they slowly consume us. So take some time each day to let go and forgive others.
Ask for forgiveness. When you feel the need to be forgiven there is a good chance you should ask for it. When we need forgiveness from others and God, it can also consume us with very different feelings of regret, hopelessness, failure, loneliness, and undeserving feelings. This can create a wall between us and others and God. We suddenly feel as though we are not good enough to enter into the presence of God (even though we have accepted him as our Saviour and he filled that gap so we could..) or hang out with our "good" friends. Perhaps we even feel like we can't get back on track because we have failed so many times before.
This is not the case my friends. When God forgives us (which we should follow..) he accepts us. He takes our sin and forgives us. Although there is a consequence for our actions, our Lord washes away our sin, he doesn't throw it back into our faces.
So no matter how many times you fall, remember, ask to be forgiven. Let those things go. Start over, die daily, move on and use your time wisely to rebuild this foundation that starts with God. He's molding you daily. Trust me - he knows what's going on in your life. So when you get that feeling, the Holy Spirit pulling on your heart strings, cling to it! It's God saying "I'm here, it's ok, you're forgiven, now live.."
Let's do this, one day at a time
ps. Sorry I failed on the collage. I'm in the process of moving and I think it'd probably be best if I do that project after I move.
