God's Mercy is Always Greater Than the Sin That We Bring Him

Hey Church Family:  Do you struggle with sin?  As believers we will continue to struggle with sin until the day we leave this earth which means that we are people who live in the need of forgiveness every moment of every day.  We cannot go one day without needing God to forgive us and at the same time us needing to forgive someone or seeking to ask for forgiveness from those whom we have transgressed.  We cannot make it in this world without giving and getting forgiveness.  Our salvation is about forgiveness.  For calls all of us as the family of God to display the exact proportion of forgiveness that has been distributed to us from our Heavenly Father.  That is extreme forgiveness, radical forgiveness.  There is not room for malice, bitterness, hostility or resentment.

Jesus reminds us in the Lord’s Prayer that we are to come to Him and ask for forgiveness.  Just like asking Him for our “daily bread” we are also to be asking Him for our sins to be forgiven daily.  But why must we ask for forgiveness of sins that have been atoned for as believers?  As believers, Jesus has promised that through His death all of our sins, past, present and future have been atoned for.  We have already been accepted as righteous for Jesus’ sake.  So why are we told by Jesus to ask for our daily sin debt to be forgiven by our Heavenly Father?

The answer to this question should fuel our desire to live a holy life killing our desire to pursue sin.  Remember at the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus asks us to start praying, “Our Father…”.  Jesus wants us to remember that our Father is not just a just Judge but He is also our Heavenly Father.  Jesus also wants us to remember that we are not just justified sinners but we are also adopted sons and daughters, heirs of His Kingdom and fellow heirs with Christ.  When you pray the Lord’s Prayer make yourself pray the prayer from the perspective that you are an adopted child of God speaking to your loving, caring Heavenly Father.  We come to Him as children who fail daily at what He has explicitly commanded us to do in His revealed will.  These transgressions of His law not only dishonor Him but it damages our relationship with our Father in Heaven.  God is grieved by our sin (Ephesians 4:30).  Our sin does not please Him (1 Thessalonians 4:1).  Our sin brings Him great pain (Psalm 78:41).  Our sins alienate ourselves from our loving Heavenly Father.  Our relationship is damaged as Father and child.  We are in need of forgiveness.

The great news is that there is much greater mercy from our loving heavenly Father than there is sin in us.  Come to your Heavenly Father boldly knowing that He will not deal with us according to our sins.  He will not repay us according to our iniquities.  Instead, He will rain down from heaven His steadfast loving forgiveness as He removes our transgressions from us as far as the east is from the west.  Our Father is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love so that you can stand forgiven, debts paid, a broken life repaired, dirty areas of your life cleaned and made freshly new.  No matter how things are broken your Heavenly Father will make all things new.  Take your sin to your Heavenly father and be restored.  Spend some personal time with your Heavenly Father simply naming your sins, seeking forgiveness, setting your relationship right and enjoy a life of peace with God.

Matthew 6:12 ...and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

This Sunday we will be meeting in person at the church building if you would like to join us in person at 10am.  And for those who will be staying at home, we will  be live-streaming on our Grace Community Church Topsail YouTube Channel. Push the blue link.  We can also be found at https://www.gracetopsail.com/

I look forward to worshipping with you Sunday, forgiven. - Steve