Hope For Today "Forgiveness"

We experience true freedom when we have a clean slate with God.  When we humbly admit our faults and sins to God, with a sincere desire to be changed, God is faithful to forgive us.

We experience true freedom when we have a clean slate with God.  When we humbly admit our faults and sins to God, with a sincere desire to be changed, God is faithful to forgive us.

Jesus Christ died on the cross and poured out His life’s blood for You and I so we could be forgiven for our sins and establish a new and life giving relationship with God. The freshness of heart and mind we can live in today after being washed by the Lord is incredible. Let’s live in that today.

"Nevertheless" - what kind of word is what? We don't hear it so often now but it meant something very significant to folks in our parents and grandparents generation and has something wonderful to remind us about today.

Shame is not something God speaks into our lives.  Shame comes from the evil one. Yes, God will show us where we are going wrong and have done wrong but His whole way of doing it brings a desire to change and an experience of acceptance and gratitude.

Is there anything that we've been holding against another person for a while? Maybe it's time to release the person from the resentment or grudge and unforgiveness we've been holding and let a fresh start happen for them and us.

Nothing takes more sensitivity and care than dealing with people with whom we have had painful experiences.  It doesn’t matter if it’s close family members or acquaintances, whether the injury happened a decade ago or ten minutes ago, we need to take great care and walk with humility as we work towards reconciliation. That’s the wisdom we are given in Step 9.

Each day is a new opportunity to respond to God’s call to live in humility, desire reconciliation in relationships, walk in forgiveness and focus on cleaning our side of the street. Honesty, balance, and realism are essential tools to keep at hand when we seek the way of peace in all our relationships.  At some point we will all need to make amends to someone and we need to do so with grace and kindness.  This is the invitation of Step 9. We made direct amends to such people, wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

God’s heart is for us to enjoy loving and caring relationships with others.  We have much to learn in this area.  For a long time we’ve blamed others for the way they treated us.  However, we have not been mindful of how our behaviour harmed others.  Transformation in our lives only comes when our words and actions conform to the principles contained in God's word. Step Eight: We made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.

Little by little as we walk with God and work at applying new spiritual principles to our journey, we gain new information about ourselves and how we relate to other people. As we prayerfully review our lives with God, He will reveal where we have caused harm, where we might owe someone some form of amends, and teach us how we can live in new ways in relationship with others. This is the principle behind Step 8: We made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.

We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. Sounds scary and intimidating to us but here’s the good news.  God already knows it all.  We will not uncover and admit anything that is a surprise to Him.  God has already forgiven us and simply wants all the infection and pain to be revealed so we can live free from it and not have to live under the accusation and condemnation of the evil one any longer.

We’re looking at Step 3 of the 12 Steps:  We made a decision to turn our will and our life over to the care of God as we understood Him. What does that look like in practical way?