reflecting on FORGIVENESS

Reflecting on forgiveness

Last week week reflected on the wonder of incarnation, God wearing flesh to intervene in the reconciliation of Man and Himself.

Matthew 6:14-15 – 14“And when you pray, make sure you forgive the faults of others so that your Father in heaven will also forgive you. 15 But if you withhold forgiveness from others, your Father withholds forgiveness from you.”

Ephesians 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, (Forgiveness – a posture , a position, a way of life)

Forgiveness /Pardon is God’s nature it flows from His compassion and unfailing love, it flows from His mercy . Psalm 103:1-3 Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name 2 Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—3 who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,

Jeremiah 31:33-34 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares YHWH, “I will put My law within them and on their heart, I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know YHWH,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares YHWH, “for I will forgive [es’lakh] their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

In Jeremiah we see the prophetic word that God will not remember our sin no more after He has forgiving our iniquity. Last week in Colossians 2 we saw the actual fulfillment of this prophecy at the cross where God in Christ canceled out every legal violation we had on our record and the old arrest warrant that stood to indict us. He erased it all—our sins, our stained soul—He deleted it all and they cannot be retrieved!

To further emphasize this nature of God – we see in 1 Kings 8 Solomon asks God hear and forgive. Let us check couple of verses. Verse 30 Hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.

37 “When famine or plague comes to the land, or blight or mildew, locusts, or grasshoppers, or when an enemy besieges them in any of their cities, whatever disaster or disease may come, 38 and when a prayer or plea is made by anyone among your people Israel—being aware of the afflictions of their own hearts and spreading out their hands toward this temple— 39 then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Forgive and act; deal with everyone according to all they do, since you know their hearts (for you alone know every human heart), 40 so that they will fear you all the time they live in the land you gave our ancestors.

I found the Hebrew meanings interesting – “pay promptly” is one of those meanings – So forgiveness should be prompt not delayed, after all our penalty for sin has been paid in full and promptly as we have read in Ephesians 1:7. Another meaning is shake off or throw off , as we have seen from Jeremiah and Colossians God has thrown our sins off !! Stain of sin has been tossed away and tossed them. Another meaning of forgiveness is like a ladder one uses to get out of the pit of sin – Psalm 40 verse 1-3 I waited patiently for the Lord; He turned to me and heard my cry. 2 He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. 3 He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him.

Who are we to leave others in a pit when God Himself has removed us, created a ladder for us to climb out of the slimy pit of trespasses? We are blameless before the throne commended by the Blood of the Lamb my spirit ,soul and body is blameless before the throne.

We spoke last week and said that we are created in the image and likeness of God. His nature is to forgive.

Let us pray – Lord God, we thank You for abundant pardon this day .We acknowledge and confess our sins of unforgiveness . We yield to the processes of dismantling thought patterns that have become strongholds of ungodliness in our lives. Let the power and purity of Your Word change us. We surrender our thoughts, emotions, and decisions to You. Renovate our minds Holy Ghost so that each and every issue that brought hurt to our souls can be resolved today in the Name of Jesus. Thank You for undoing the bands of the yokes that have bound us, Thank You for releasing the oppressed and breaking every yoke. Let You living , active Word that is sharper than any double edged pierce as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and bring judgement to the thoughts and intentions of our hearts. Unveil areas in our hearts that need repentance or change, Restorer of our souls restore us so that we can forgive others and love them as You have demonstrated to us and commanded us in the mighty Name of Jesus we pray and believe.

Ciiru