PSALM 130 – Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord! O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared. I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning. O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.”
THEME OF THE DAY: OH MAY IT NEVER BE SO! There is a question in the middle of today’s scripture that needs no advance education or inductive skills to answer. The question is If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? and the obvious answer is not a single person.
After this question comes the most liberating contrast we find in scripture – But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared. Does the Lord mark iniquities? Never. Does He remember our iniquities? Not at all. In fact, He goes even further. Settle into these glorious words from the prophet Micah – Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:18-19).
Now let’s bring it close to home; our own hearts. It is so easy to rejoice in how God treats us and marvel over such abundant grace in forgiveness, restoration and not holding our past against us. Thrills the heart, doesn’t it? Makes us want to love God more, doesn’t it? Okay. How do we respond when sinned against, and maybe grievously? Or what about those easily committed offenses, not sins, but offenses we receive from other believers, not intentionally, but actually? Here becomes the proving ground of our closeness to Jesus and how much we are acting like Jesus.
If we withhold forgiveness to anyone who has sinned again us, or we harbor offenses that have hurt us without letting go, have we not forgotten how the grace-filled Jesus always treats us? May we not just profess the grace of God but always practice the grace of God. Freely we have received, freely we must always give.
PRAYER: “Father, help me not to harbor any offense done against me and poison my heart with bitterness.”
QUOTE: “If we withhold forgiveness to anyone or let offenses remain in our hearts, we forgot how Jesus treats us.”
In the affection of Christ Jesus,
Pastor Jim