Create in me a new heart.  Segue from James 2.24-26—forgiveness

I love King David’s prayer in Psalm 139, “Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts.  See if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”  It is my daily practice to include a time of confession in my early morning prayer time ~ asking God to reveal anything I need to set right ~ anything I should change or perhaps make straight with another person.  Confession and forgiveness are two sides of a coin, which is evidenced in 1 John 1.9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

I bear in mind what David said, “If I cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened,” Psalm 66.18.  Recently, I have gotten reacquainted with a dear old friend, Kathryn Scott.  Listen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxWX95tNFAU Search Me, Know Me

Forgiveness is a gift.

Most especially to the one that forgives . . . lest otherwise his heart should be bound up tight, like a wee cabin locked and shuttered against the winter snows.  I should like to untie the bow, and begin to tear off the wrap of this gift of forgiveness to expose its many facets.

With forgiveness, there is a vertical, and a horizontal aspect.  We are invited to ask God for forgiveness of our sins, so that he can wash us white as snow.  Only a loving God could have conceived of something so rich, so liberating as the whole notion of forgiveness.  Forgiveness is a way of setting things right and wiping the slate clean before a holy God.   My friend Judy said the other day that she was praying, lamenting a sin to God, when he said, ‘sin, I don’t call any such sin, dear girl!’  And then she remembered that his Word said, ‘I remember your sins no more’ in Hebrews 8.12.    

When we utter, ‘forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,’ we acknowledge that forgiveness is needed for right relationship with God.  And God is not stingy with forgiveness…why, he offers it freely….if we ask for it. 

In turn, we need to forgive others—that is the horizontal aspect of forgiveness . . . forgiving each other.  “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.”  Matthew 6.14-15  Yikes!   So many people are walking around wounded because of unforgiveness—they just can’t let go of the wrongs done against them.  Oh, those wrongs may be pushed deep inside, but unresolved, the residual bitterness will seep out.  Unforgiveness stifles our personalities and creativity, ages us prematurely, causes mysterious illness, and gives us barbs that stick out and gouge others. 

When God offers us forgiveness, it is divine—made possible only through Jesus.  When we need to forgive, we need to access the divine also, by asking God to help us forgive, to release others from their error, regardless of whether or not they are seeking forgiveness.  “Father, please help me forgive my dad . . . for his cold, detached way and critical tongue.  How many times did he cut me to the core!  Lord, he must have been hurting inside to be so mean-spirited, to do some of the horrible things he did.  I want to release him of my expectations of what a dad should have been like … help me, Lord …..”  How about you—who do you need to forgive?  Form your own prayer right now.

We are about to move on to other matters of the heart, but our first order of business just had to be tending to the minefields of unforgiveness that lie buried within us.  One more time—ask your Father—‘anyone you are holding ought against?  Time to let go.  Be free, Child.

Grace to you,

Christine