At church tonight, I taught a group of sweet little boys about God taking our sins and putting them behind His back. Isaiah 38:17
They understood that when something was behind their back, they could no longer see it.
God’s power is truly revealed in this verse.
Sometimes we do bad things; maybe terrible things. And yet, when we genuinely seek Him and ask for forgiveness, not only does He forgive us, He doesn’t see our sins anymore.
Now think about your life.
Think about that person who has hurt you. That person who has lied; that person who has cheated; that person who has done you wrong.
Forgiveness is hard isn’t it? So.very.hard.
And you know what’s harder? Continuing to forgive.
I struggle daily with trying to forgive. Just when I think I’m doing good, my thoughts turn to what that person did, and I have a moment (or longer) where I don’t want to forgive. I don’t want to be nice.
No matter how hard we try, we can’t completely forget what they’ve done. And amidst our good intentions of forgiveness, we find our thoughts filled with negativity toward that person. No doubt, the devil tries his best to aid in this…
We realize that we are inadequate on our own to forgive.
But God is not.
He demonstrates His magnificent power to not only forgive us, but to “remember our sins no more.” Hebrews 8:12
Who can compare to God?
Who can be sinned against, yet “remember their sins no more?”
I’ll tell you, it’s definitely not me.
And it’s probably not you either.
How great, how mighty is our God that He is able to forgive all of our sins, and not just forgive them, but remember them no more?
Yes, His power is demonstrated when He raised the dead; when He made the crippled walk, and when he fed the five thousand.
But His power of forgiveness demonstrates how insufficient we are on our own to fully forgive.
Luckily, we don’t have to do it on our own. God knows we are human. He knows we will mess up. He knows the thoughts that we have.
But in these times, He’s hoping that we will seek His help. That we will come to Him, pleading to Him to give us the ability to forgive like Him, and love like Him.
And when we come, recognizing our weakness, His strength is magnified and will be upon us.
“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” 2 Corinthians 12:9
And if you think you’ve done something too bad for God to forgive you, friend, you just aren’t that powerful.
He can and will forgive you. And He’s waiting for you to come.
“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,” Acts 3:19
