Have you ever found it hard to accept God’s forgiveness?
The mistakes you’ve made and the sins you’ve committed just seem too much for God to wink at, much less forgive. But when you carry around the guilt along with the feeling you don’t deserve God’s love and forgiveness, it can really be a terrible burden that keeps you from living the life of joy and freedom God has in store for you. It’s time to accept God’s forgiveness.
When someone gives you a gift, what do you do? You accept it, open it and use it, wear it, eat it, or whatever it’s designed to do. When God gives the gift of His love, grace and forgiveness, you can do exactly the same thing. Accept it and embrace it and let it be part of your life.
You know, everyone talks about God’s forgiveness, but it’s another thing altogether to accept God’s forgiveness. It’s the same thing with God’s love and grace.
Have you ever felt you just didn’t deserve God’s forgiveness or His love or His grace? It kind of feels that way sometimes.
And some churches actually say you don’t deserve God’s grace and love, but He gives it to you anyway. Or that you don’t deserve to be forgiven but God forgives you because of Jesus crucifixion. Well, I think we need to go a little deeper than that because you do deserve God’s love, just as any child deserves his or her parents’ love.
Jesus’s resurrection washes away your sins
As far as Jesus’s death on the cross goes, we need to look at the whole gospel message there. It’s not just Jesus’s death that washes away your sins. Paul says in
And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.
And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile you are still in your sins. 1 Corinthians 15:14, 17 NIV
So it is not just Jesus’s death by itself, but his victory over death that frees us from sin, that washes away those sins.
You are worthy
You are worthy of God’s love, grace and forgiveness, right now. Jesus has won the victory over all death and all sin. And part of your inheritance as a child of God is God’s love, grace, and forgiveness. It’s so important to keep this idea in your heart. You are the child of God. You’re made in God’s image and likeness.
The sins and mistakes in your life are not part of this image and likeness. They’re more like the mud that you may have played in as a kid and that gets washed away.
Did you ever play in the mud when you were a kid? Do you still have some of that mud? Did you save some of it in a little bottle? And do you smear it on your face every once in a while? Of course not.
Was it the right thing to take a bath and wash it away? Did you deserve to be clean and wash it all away? Of course.
You are able to accept God’s forgiveness
Well, to feel like you don’t deserve God’s forgiveness would be like saying you didn’t deserve to have the mud, which you played in, washed off. The mud is not part of you.
The sins you committed are not part of you, not part of your identity as the image and likeness of God.
When you have a repentant heart and a humble spirit, you do deserve to be forgiven. You don’t earn it, but you deserve it, just as a child deserves to have a bath after playing in the mud, just as a child deserves to be loved by a parent.
So I want to encourage you to practice saying these words.
I accept God’s forgiveness.
I accept God’s love.
I accept God’s grace because I’m made in the image and likeness of God and the mud. My mistakes and sins are not part of me, but God is washing them away.
These are just a few ideas for you to think about. I want you to know how worthy you are of God’s love and forgiveness and grace.
And you can begin to accept that about yourself and accept God’s forgiveness, God’s grace and God’s love.
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Photo credit: Satria Yudha
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James Early, the Jesus Mindset Coach, is a Bible teacher, speaker, and church mentor. He conducts Bible workshops online and in person. His focus is on getting back to the original Christianity of Jesus by learning to think, pray, and love like Jesus. Contact him here.
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Bible References
1 Corinthians 15:14, 17 NIV
14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.
17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile you are still in your sins.
