Guilt, yours and mine, is at the bottom of God’s unfathomable sea of forgiveness. Come on up from unforgiveness.
God’s faithfulness to us in forgiving our sins is unfathomable with our human understanding. God’s compassion towards us, His mercy, is everlasting. Micah 7:19 says “He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.” This is where we get the saying “God throws our sins into the sea of forgetfulness.” I Corinthians 13:5d says love does not keep an account of wrong. If God, through His love, has mercy that endures to all generations, casts our sins into the depths of forgetfulness, and does not keep an account of wrongs against Him, who is Holy, how much more should we strive to be like Him and do the same?
Forgiveness and Love walk hand in hand. We cannot say that we love God whom we’ve never seen but hate our brother, (mother, father, sister, friend, neighbor, stranger who stepped on our toe) whom we see everyday. God’s love is all encompassing and His forgiveness reaches throughout eternity to bring salvation, healing, deliverance and reconciliation to all who call upon the Name of Yeshua Ha-Mashiach to be saved. We must be very careful to forgive our trespassers. Look at it like this. You may be in grave error and danger of holding someone responsible for an offense against you. They may not have ever come to you to say “I’m sorry” but have, like so many of us, gone to the Throne of Mercy to ask for forgiveness for the thing in which they wronged you. God has been faithful and just to forgive their sin and it is no longer being held against them by God. NOW YOU have an account in your heart against them that GOD DOESN’T EVEN HAVE… HOW will you explain to God how you refused to forgive them for something HE has wiped from existence???
I leave you with this to contemplate.
I always ask God questions. So one day I asked God, “Why didn’t you just destroy Lucifer when he rebelled against you in heaven?” Father responded by sending me to Revelation 20. This talks about the 1000 years satan will be chained in the bottomless pit then released to deceive the nations. Of course, I was confused. Why would you send me to this scripture God? I don’t understand. So He began to explain it to me like this.
“I DID NOT DESTROY satan RIGHT AWAY BECAUSE MY LOVE, FORGIVENESS AND REDEMPTION EXTENDS TO ALL MY CREATION. YOU, AS HUMAN BEINGS HAVE THE CONCEPT THAT THERE ARE THING THAT ARE TOO EVIL TO BE FORGIVEN. BUT THAT IS NOT ME. I AM LOVE. I AM RIGHTEOUSNESS. ALL WHO REPENT AND TURN TO ME HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE REDEEMED. THOUGH I KNOW SATAN WILL NOT REPENT AND TURN FROM HIS WICKED WAYS, I STILL WILL GIVE HIM THE OPPORTUNITY TO BE RESTORED. ALL HE HAS TO DO, ALL ANYONE IN MY CREATION HAS TO DO IN ORDER TO BE FORGIVEN IS TO SAY “FORGIVE ME.” AND ALL WILL BE ERASED. MY LOVE FOR MY CREATION IS EVERLASTING. IT DOES NOT STOP BECAUSE OF REBELLION, PRIDE, EGO OR SELF-ELEVATION. MY LOVE FOR MY CREATION DOES NOT CEASE BECAUSE OF THE SINS AND UNRIGHTEOUSNESS COMMITTED BEFORE ME. I HATE SIN. I DO NOT HATE MY CREATION, EVEN LUCIFER HIMSELF. HE DECLARED HIMSELF AN ENEMY TO MY THRONE BECAUSE HE WAS BOUND AND DETERMINED TO TRY TO TAKE MY GLORY. I CAST HIM OUT BUT DID NOT DESTROY HIM BECAUSE THROUGHOUT ETERNITY, I STILL LONG FOR ALL OF MY CREATION TO BE RECONCILED TO ME. EVEN SATAN HIMSELF HAS THE CHANCE FOR REDEMPTION. IF MY LOVE REACHES TOWARD THE ENEMY OF MY THRONE, HOW MUCH MORE DOES MY LOVE REACH FOR THOSE WHO ARE CREATED IN MY LIKENESS AND IMAGE. SATAN, JUST LIKE ALL THOSE WHO ARE BORN IN TIME, WILL HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO BE REDEEMED INSIDE OF TIME. ONCE TIME IS DONE AWAY WITH, ONCE YOU MOVE OUTSIDE OF TIME, YOUR COURSE FOR ETERNITY WILL BE SET. THIS IS WHY IT IS SO IMPORTANT TO FORGIVE WHILE YOU HAVE THE CHANCE. THIS IS WHY IT IS SO IMPORTANT, CRUCIAL FOR YOU TO LOVE WITH MY HEART WHILE YOU HAVE BREATH IN TIME. ETERNITY IS SET…”
Wow. If God gives satan the opportunity for forgiveness, how much more should we forgive those who trespass against us? Our fellow human beings are just as human, fallible and vulnerable as we are to hurt. Hurting people hurt other people. We must learn, practice, embrace forgiveness as a way of life while we have time. We must forgive if we want to be forgiven. We must let go of the painful past, hurts, traumas caused by carelessness or even intentional evil. We must not let our pride, ego, soulish emotions stand in the way of forgiving those who’ve hurt us and caused us pain. {That includes ourselves sometimes. We can hurt ourselves much more than others can because we carry the guilt of our own shortcomings and sins. Release yourself. Forgive yourself for falling short. God already has.} Give the most precious gift that you can give to another and yourself, the wonder and miracle of forgiveness. It is a miracle that God has extended to us. Therefore, let us resolve to extend that miracle to everyone around us.
Amen?Amen!
