Receive The Gift Of Forgiveness

by Susan Swafford    Broken From Silence book    www.YourCoreAdvantage.com 

The Holy Spirit opens our hearts to understand the meaning of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. In this demonstration of love, He grants us forgiveness. Yet only those who walk in the Spirit, and move from a self-centered existence to a more God-centered one, will enjoy the benefits of this. We need to take our eyes off our circumstances, and quit seeing ourselves as victims. Our pride often prevents us from enjoying God’s forgiveness. When we acknowledge our sin to God, and realize that there is nothing we can do to merit His forgiveness—that Christ did it all—we can have genuine peace in our hearts.

When God opens our spiritual eyes to accept conviction of our sin, we can see it as a blessing instead of a source of condemnation. God does not want us to live in constant misery over past sin. He wants us to deal effectively with these areas in our lives so we can be healed and speak the truth of His goodness to the lost.

For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal...
Jeremiah 30:17 NRSV
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God, in His grace, will increasingly bring us to a point where we stop making excuses for our sinful choices. Pretexts for evil behavior are futile. They express an unrepentant attitude of heart; as if Christ’s suffering does not apply to “me” for this bad choice. When we allow such things to stand, we ultimately say that we do not need to seek forgiveness because we had good reasons for what we did, or we had no other choice.

Praise God that he has opened our hearts to spiritual truth and that we are able to come boldly to the throne of grace for forgiveness and life. Praise God that we no longer have to justify ourselves, but we are now justified through Christ!

No matter what journey our life has taken; God’s forgiveness extends to every sin, purifies us from moral corruption, and restores us to an unimpaired spiritual condition. Though sold into slavery by our sin, the precious blood of Jesus bought us, and liberated us from captivity.

Come, let’s talk this over! Says the Lord; no matter how deep the stain of your sins, I can take it out and make you as clean as freshly fallen snow. Even if you are stained as red as crimson, I can make you white as wool!
Isaiah 1:18 TLB

Because of this gift, we should live in such a way that pleases the Lord, praise Him, and not forget what He has done for us. He forgave all our sins—even the sin of abortion. He rescued us from self-destruction, and from eternal damnation. He continues to heal us from pain and moral corruption. God surrounds us with loving kindness and tender mercies that are new every morning.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits--who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the Pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy...