He has forgiven you… get over yourself. He Has!

Ok. Let me start off by saying that I don’t believe we should take forgiveness and the asking for forgiveness lightly. The Word commands us to forgive. Asking our Heavenly Father for forgiveness is part of the Lord’s Prayer and essential in enabling God to hear our prayers. Yes, that is right, I said enable God. God can not / chooses not to coexist with sin and death. For this reason the Word is clear that we must ask forgiveness and clear up sin before He will choose to hear us.

Isaiah 59:1-2 (King James Version)1Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
2But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

Psalm 66:18 (King James Version)18If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:

1 Peter 3:12 (King James Version)12For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.

See also for prayer not heard do to lack of forgiveness… (Prov 15:29, Prov 28:9, Isa 1:15, John 9:31 , James 4:3)

We are commanded to forgive each other…

Matthew 18:21-22 (King James Version)
21Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?
22Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.

If we do not ask for forgiveness our gifts can be found unacceptable to God…

Matthew 5:24 (King James Version)24Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.

I say all of these things to let you know that I understand the true weight of forgiveness. But, with that being said I sometimes feel like we as Christians overdo it. I think we get stuck in a trap and let satan repeatedly attack us with guilt of sins that we have already been forgiven for. I know many Christians that repeatedly ask God for the forgiveness of the same sin. (I include myself in this.) I want to scream, JUST REACH OUT AND TAKE IT. I picture a child nagging a parent for something they have already given them. When this happens we are not focused on Him. We are focused on ourselves. We are thinking so much about what we want and need, ie the forgiveness, that we do not even see Him and the fact that He has already given it to us.

Psalm 103:12 (King James Version)12As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

As a matter of fact, I believe that when we ask for the forgiveness of a sin more than once we create a new sin. First of all you are following the voice of satan who is telling you that you were not forgiven the first time. Second God commands us to forgive so by not forgiving ourselves we are in violation of the law. Third we are saying the work Jesus preformed on the cross was not enough to cover us. Fourth we are siting in judgment on ourselves, a job reserved solely for Christ. I don’t know about you, but I try hard not to be in the business of challenging God for His job.

God has had to work a lot on this with me personally. I have struggled a majority of my life with being hard on myself and forgiving myself. It has just been over the last year that God’s patient hand has worked me to a point where I can write this. He is so good. The release I have felt since has be amazing. If one person reads this and finds that peace I will have considered this post a success.

We should not sin. We should take sin seriously. The truth is that sin is separation from God and death. And in the Bible there are extreme consequences for sinning intentionally. Every sin added one more strip to our loving savior. But at the end of the day He did take the stripes. He hung on the cross. I think this fact needs to be taken just as seriously. He has forgiven you! Take it. Hold on to it. Rest in it. If the evil one tries to hold it against you again send him there. Send him to the cross. Tell him to talk to Jesus about it. It is no longer yours. You are white as snow and it is forgotten as far as the east is to the west.

We love you so much Jesus. Thank you