Morning Devotional

November 19, 2004
"The Promise of Forgiveness"

by Don Emmitte

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This is the message he has given us to announce to you: God is light and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness. We are not living in the truth. But if we are living in the light of God's presence, just as Christ is, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from every sin. If we say we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and refusing to accept the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts. (1 John 1:5-10 NLT).

Today we continue with the promises of God. The second one is that God promises forgiveness.  I had a habit of rocking my children to sleep. In fact, I did that with them until they were old enough that they had outgrown the rocking chair. It was not unusual to find us both laying in the rocker/recliner asleep, me with my feet up and one of the boys stretched out with head on one arm of the chair and legs hanging over the other. One memory stands out as we look at this promise of God today.

Often we would read a book before they would drift off to sleep. Sometimes we would talk for a little while. It was one of my favorite times of the day. One night was different. When he crawled into my lap, he quickly turned away from me. I instantly knew something was wrong. I tried to talk with him, but he was very quiet. After several moments, he shared with me that he was scared, because he didn’t think I had forgiven him. He had gotten into trouble that morning. We never really had a chance to discuss it. I guess he had carried the guilt around all day. I confirmed my love for him, and that I had already forgiven and forgotten about whatever it was (I still don’t remember), and he quickly went off to sleep in peace.

That’s a true story. Does it reflect something between you and the Lord? Are you having a hard time remembering His promise of forgiveness? Sometimes we slow down our spiritual growth by hanging on to guilt of the past. If my son had been allowed to believe that I was still upset with him, how could he have ever really shared his heart with me? There would have been a constant divider between us. God doesn’t want us to live this way! He wants you to confess your sins. You need to! But, He also wants you to accept His forgiveness! Let go of the guilt, place it at the foot of the Cross and trust in the promise of His total redemption.

Jeremiah 31:34 says it like this: “...declares the LORD. ‘For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.’" Have you confessed your sins and sought God’s forgiveness through Jesus Christ? If so, don’t bring it up to Him again. He doesn’t remember!