Forgiveness is a free gift…
I John 1:9 says that when we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins… and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness…
The older I get, the more I get a glimpse in understanding this kind of forgiveness. This free gift – My God offers it so willingly… the only thing I must do, is acknowledge my sin and confess it. (I’ll be the first to admit that isn’t alway as easy as it sounds. Simple? – yes. Easy? No.)
As I am learning about forgiveness, I have to look at the perfect model that the Lord has layed before me. He requires confession – and then I get to experience amazing freedom in His offering of forgiveness. He already paid the price for my sin so that He can offer this forgiveness; however, I still must confess my need for it.
So, how does this relate to me as I learn to forgive?
It doesn’t mean that I demand or require a confession before I offer forgiveness to others… the Lord clearly offers His forgiveness before I ever come close to recognizing my own sin. I’m learning that forgiving frees ME when I offer it first… then, this forgiveness frees the one who has wronged me when they can experience what I have to offer.
Here is an illustration from recent events in my life…
My 5 year old had done something wrong and was having trouble getting to the point where he needed to confess his sin. One of the things I told him as I was disciplining him was that I had already forgiven him… but, he couldn’t experience that forgiveness until he apologized and confessed what he did was wrong. He fell asleep that night with a heavy heart… and early the next morning, he crawled into bed with me and said, “Mom, I’m sorry!” I didn’t need his apology because I had already forgiven him… but, he needed it to be able to experience the freedom forgiveness has to offer.
And – so it is with us as grown ups…
We need to forgive (with or without an apology) to be FREE from the wrong against us. And we need to confess to be able to experience the forgiveness offered to us.
Now for my little disclaimer… 😉
Please understand that I am on this journey… just like you probably are. I don’t have all the answers and am working through my own adventure of learning to truly forgive. I grew up in the church – yet, I feel so very new to the idea of offering forgiveness so that the Lord can help me experience freedom. “Vengence is mine, declares the Lord”
I don’t think this part of my story is even close from being over… like I had said before, Forgiveness is a process – and I believe is something we will probably struggle through as long as we live on this earth. But, thankfully, we have the grace of our Lord to walk along side us… and He has already done the hard work so that we can freely forgive and be forgiven! This blog is a journal of sorts… as I share the tid-bits the Lord is teaching me and where He is working in my life. My hope is that somehow in reading my story – you will know that you are not alone in your struggles… and you would walk away encouraged.
~Jenni
Hi, Visiting from GMG.
I am really looking forward to reading through these posts on forgiveness very carefully- just what I am needing at the moment.
Love your blog, have a lovely week in the Word,
In His Joy
Hugs
C
Welcome! Thanks for stopping by… 🙂 If you want to be notified when a new post is up, subscribe to the RSS feed on the right…
I’m very excited about this series – and sharing what the Lord is teaching me in this area… next I’ll be looking at Jesus’ road to forgiveness! Powerful stuff!!