Forgiveness - for selves, others, and country - just a sincere prayer away

 I want to start this by making a distinction brought to mind by a contact's question with Global Media Outreach.

All sin causes us to fall short of God's perfection. It all had to be atoned for, nailed to the cross, for us to receive God's free gift of eternal life. As Ravi Zacharias says, “The four absolutes we all have in our minds: love, justice, evil, and forgiveness." These are absolutes that we try to imagine for ourselves, but God's Word tells us the real definition of each. And, all were present at the cross; God in His absolute love defeated the absolute evil which led people to sin by meting out upon Himself, Jesus Christ, absolute justice for our sin so that He could give us absolute forgiveness.

However, once we confess to God that we're sinners in need of a Saviour, and trust Jesus Christ by calling on Him to forgive and to save us, we don't need to pray Psalm 51 after every little sin. Our prayers for forgiveness can usually be along the lines of a child whose loving father comes into the room and tells the child kindly, "You left the cottage cheese out of the refrigerator." The expected reaction is just a "Sorry, Dad" and then going to put it away (repenting - turning from that sin).If we keep our hearts right, we'll keep those little ones from growing into bigger ones.(Such as how so many sins were committed, leading to that Psalm 51 prayer, because David didn't look away from Bathsheba and control himself.

Forgiveness is there if we just receive it by faith in three types - our own, others', and then as a part of that our country.

For Ourselves

Why repentance? I've mentioned this elsewhere on this blog; this post is a good example. We all have a sin nature. The song The Power of the Cross by Stuart Townend speaks much more powerfully and I encourage you to listen. However, suffice it to say that "every bitter thought, every evil deed" has been placed on our Savior, and He has borne all the wrath, the full weight of the world's sin.

If we're not careful it can become easy to forget that among all those people was each one of us. No, we haven't all committed every type of sin. But, all our bitter, wrathful, uncaring, prideful, and others types of thoughts, along with all the evil acts we commit, were paid for on the cross. Without Jesus Christ taking our place and bearing our sins, the just for the unjust(1 pet.2:24), we could not be forgiven and could not get to God's perfect Heaven, because there can't be any sin there. So, we must trust Jesus to save us and make us new.

This is why I began the way I did. Each of our past, present, and future sin is paid for on the cross. It was all an affront to God and His perfect righteousness, but it has all been paid for. Once you trust Him to save you and forgive you and invite Him to be your Saviour and to make you new inside, you stand forgiven at the cross. We who are forgiven have a relationship with God that wasn't present before we called on Him to save us. If you've never done that, you need to, and your are only a single, sincere prayer of repentance away.

Remember, of course, that while those little sins may not be as big as others, they are still sin  - all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.(Rom.3:23) The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.(Rom.6:23) False pride, being mean, lying, and so on all those bitter, spiteful, vengeful thoughts, pile on top of each other and all add up to the reason Jesus Christ came for you. if you'd been the only person ever in this world He still would have come to die for you and rise from the dead.

You can go here if you'd like to make a profession of faith because you just trusted him as Saviour right now or you would like to know how, or you can ask questions to one of the numerous online volunteers.

For Others

Did you ever notice Jesus never says not to remove a mote from another's eye? He only says to first remove the beam from one's own eye.

The Bible says that with whatever judgment we judge, we'll be judged.

That can be both comforting - we can stand up for the truth - and scary if we aren't living that truth. When we pray, we must have our hearts right with God, as I remarked here. In other words, not entertaining thoughts of evil like revenge, hatred, bitterness, and so on. These are the kinds of things we should get rid of fast by going to someone and discussing the hurt right away, as the Matthew 18 principle shows. "Be ye angry and sin not - let not the sun go down upon your wrath"(Eph.4:26) means it's okay to have righteous anger, but that anger should never be used as an excuse to sin. "let not the sun go down..." means don't let anger fester and become worse and worse, go to the person and get things right before the day ends if possible.

Sometimes, that forgiveness must be extended decades after something happened. Corrie Ten Boom had an experience like this. It was only a couple years later, but her story of seeing a former concentration camp guard who was so clearly a new person is quite amazing. However, either way, we must be willing to put that behind us and not keep punishing that person; even if, as she did, we must ask the Spirit in us to be the one to extend that hand of forgiveness..

Forgiveness isn't the same as forgetting, as she recognized. Traumas come in many forms, and sometimes it is a struggle with PTSD to avoid having a flashback when certain triggers are present or mentioned. The devil makes us recall those traumas. It's not something God wants. He wants us to successfully move onn. In such cases, it's important to trust and pray God will help you avoid such triggers and give you good ideas for how to cope - based on your own individual makeup - which will help you not have them. Remember that flashbacks are the devil's way of trying to make you think you are still in that place; so, for instance, if you were being terribly bullied perhaps you can envision it stopping somehow. You know that it is merely a mechanism to keep you from thinking that the evil is still happening. 2nd Timothy 2 1 says to be strong in the Lord. That is a continual strengthening from the outside, which only God can provide. And, it shows that he understands it is hard for us to deal with some things.

However, you can still forgive and pray that God help the person become more like Christ and to receive Christ as Savior if they haven't. You can still choose not to hold it against that person, though of course there are consequences to sin. Sometimes those mean separation, such as when Paul and Barnabas agreed that the problem between them was not something that allowed them to remain together. This is where if a person is being abused, they have every right to stay away from that abuser.

All that being said, most things brought to mind are not PTSD-related but simply things we must get rid of by forgiving, letting go and letting God handle it rather than continuing to be bitter.

God calls us to forgive just as Christ did. Those extreme examples might even be compared to King David, who when King Saul sought to kill him didn't just stop in his tracks, go up to Saul, and let him kill him. (Although, being God's anointed, I suppose God would have raised him from the dead - which might have given Saul a fatal heart attack on the spot!) However, when David had a chance to harm Saul, he refused to take revenge.(1 Sam. 24)

David's example of sparing Saul's life is the perfect picture of how we should be. David trusted God to handle things, just as are told to in Romans 12:20. Indeed, when we love our enemies it is as if we heap burning coals upon their heads. After all, if someone else will not receive that forgiveness it can constantly haunt them that they didn't when we were so loving. But, we must give them the chance to do so because God can make them new inside so they're not like that.

And, that's the biggest thing. "Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."(Eph.4:32) God has forgiven each of us for every sin we have ever committed. I'm sure there are some who have been very mean and cruel, but not every sin they ever committed was against one person the way we have offended God with our sin.

God's Heaven is perfect. There can no sin there. it will be impossible to be sinned against, but it will also be impossible to sin. That's why God must make us new creatures.(2 Cor.5:17). this can only be done by putting your trust in Jesus Christ to save you and calling on Him to forgive you of your sins.  If you have been made new, there should be a desire in your heart to do what's right to glorify Him. We will still sin, but we should do it less and less as we give more and more to Him.

And, as we learn to love others more, we can see great things happen. Our country, as bad a shape as it's in in many areas, still can be forgiven, but we must seek God now.

For Our Country

2 Chronicles 7:14 says, "If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then shall I hear from Heaven, and I will answer their their prayers, and I will heal their land." While this verse is meant for Israel, we Gentiles have been grafted in, receiveing the spirit of adoption by God. In addition, Jeremiah 18:5-10 proves this promise is also for Gentile nations.

So, God is willing to forgive us. We see through personally receiving forgiveness and sharing it with others  that God forgives people; He'll forgive our nation, too. But, it's up to us. And, it's a choice we should make for a few good reasons.

First, forgiveness wipes out the sin debt which we have. Our national debt is horrible, but it is really nothing compared to our sin debt. The judgment which would come down upon this country if we didn’t seek god’s face and turn from our wicked ways is huge – remember that absolute justice requires that sins be paid for somehow.

Some might argue that our nation doesn’t deserve forgiveness, but remember, neither do any of us. Jesus didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance. That may sound confusing at first because there is none righteous, no not one.(Rom.3:1) however, what He means when he says this is that He isn’t going to grant forgiveness to those who don’t think they need to be forgiven. He won’t force us to trust Him. He lovingly woos us.

In the same way, this nation was self-righteous and didn’t feel it needed forgiven for a long time.People were only Godly when they chose to be - in other words, not against minorities or poor people or whatever other people they didn't like.

Such an evil attitude is why I often emphasize that repentance means turning away from sin.it's agreeing with God that one's sin separates one from a perfect and holy God and letting God take that sin upon Himself.

Therefore, we must - as a nation - seek forgiveness recognizing that this means turning away from our sins and turing to a Biblical way of treating others with love, kindness, compassion, etc. regardless of what they look like or where they are from.

We can't just pick and choose what of God's tenets to follow, but we can simply turn back to God and trust Him to heal this land by trusting Him to reveal to us what our stances need to be on certain things to be right with HIm. This, of course, understanding that it's important to focus on what we stand for, not jsut against.

That verse in 2 Chronicles calls for God's people to do these things, not a leader. He wants moral, Godly leadership, but first we have to want it, too. The way to get it is not by following the establishment - which is man-made and filled with sin - but it is also not with forsaking the establishment with a totally unGodly person, either. (More on that problem later.)

Instead, the solution is for us to call on Jesus in prayer and urge others to as well, turning from our sins and trusting in God to heal our land.

He still can. He takes no pleasure in punishing the wicked.(Ezek.33:11) however, time may be short. We don't know how long we have, but we do know that God's love is waiting for us to call on Him to forgive. And, he will remove our sins as far as the east is fromt he west and restore us. Maybe not to the worldly standard of superpower, but remember, we should build our treasures in Heaven, where moth and rust cannot corrupt and thieves don't break forth and steal. For where our treasure is, there will our hearts be also.(Matt.6:20-21)