Forgiveness - Thank God for forgiving you when you sin instead of saying I'm sorry?

The last 2 blogs I had were on forgiveness… read the first blog, about what forgiveness is, and what it is not HERE and the 2nd blog on old covenant vs new covenant forgiveness, and an often used verse HERE

Thank God for forgiveness and freedom

Today, I would like to talk about how we go about repenting to God, asking for forgiveness, when we have already originally repented. When we have already turned from our old nature, and made Jesus Lord of our life, but then we mess up and sin. Perhaps we say something that is not life, do something that is not an act of righteousness. Big or small, it doesn’t matter, it isn’t the holiness of God, and the more time we spend with the Lord, the more we notice those things that are not righteousness. We are to hate lawlessness and love righteousness.

            Do we wallow in the ground and feel like scum? Is that what we are to do. Or should we come boldly before the throne of grace to find mercy in our time of need? Boldness, or fearlessness comes from knowing that on judgement day you are clean, you will be judged righteous. However, we just sinned, so is that still true? Yes, it is. If you have truly repented and turned from your ways, and made Jesus Lord and savior of your life, then you have a completely new nature. You are no longer a sinner by nature, you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

            Therefore, you should come fearless, and boldly before the throne of grace. Because you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. We are to humble ourselves before the throne of grace. That doesn’t mean feel like trash and be filled with guilt and shame and not believe that Jesus sacrifice was enough. That is actually pride, or what we often call reverse pride. It is saying that what you did was bigger than Jesus’ payment. However, we know that Jesus’ payment was bigger than anything than we can do. That doesn’t mean we should sin, or we should like it. We should hate it, and we should be holy as He is holy, but every bit of holiness is empowered by Him. There is no pride in that, it is boasting in the Lord and choosing to walk in the light as He is in the light.

            I am reminded of something a friend shared with me probably a few years ago, and has reminded me of at times, and I’m so thankful for that. The lesson is that instead of apologizing, we can thank the person for understanding. An example to make it clearer, would be… Say I’m running 5 minutes late to meet with someone. I could reach out, let them know my estimated time is 5 minutes late, and thank you so much for your patience and understanding. Now I am complementing them, and speaking life. If instead I say, “I’m going to be 5 minutes late, and I’m so sorry”. Now that person most likely feels that they need to say “that’s okay”, or something of the sort, and it gets the focus on me. Or worse, I could list a bunch of excuses for why I was running 5 minutes late, and get the focus even more on me.

            Let’s take this to an example with God. I could say, “God I am so sorry that I just lost my temper with my family member, please forgive me”. Or I could speak truth, because the truth is, that I am not asking for Jesus to hang on the cross again to forgive each sin I’ve ever done. He has already paid for all sins to be forgiven for all time, we just have the free will to receive it or not. Jesus nailed all the sins to the cross, disarming principalities and powers. Therefore, I get say to something more like this: "thank you God that you have already forgiven me, through your sons sacrifice, Jesus Christ. Thank you, Jesus for your sacrifice. Thank you, God that you have empowered me, through the Holy Spirit, to have a spirit characterized with self-discipline and agape love to respond to my family calmly and with care and truth and love. I have the Dunamis power of the Holy Spirit in me to allow all this to happen. Thank you, God."

In this instance, I have turned, or repented, even though I didn’t beg for forgiveness… Because God already gave forgiveness. And repentance means a change of direction, and a turning away from whatever we were doing, toward God. It’s a change of mind too. Therefore, if we decided that losing our temper with our family isn’t something that was good, and desired to change and do different, we have already repented. We should just turn to God and start acknowledging Him, in all our ways, so He can make our paths straight. It is just beautiful.

            Therefore, start thanking God for already forgiving you when you realize you have done wrong. Brag on God and His awesomeness, and get your focus off yourself. It is good. Let’s walk in the freedom of what God has done, and have fullness of joy in His presence! We will not walk away from the presence of the Lord when we really know and acknowledge the freedom He has paid to give us!

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