Who is a God like You, Pardoning iniquity And passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in mercy. (Micah 7:18, NKJV).
Dear God, there is none like You! The One and Only True God! Help us to allow You to keep us close by Your side. As You are willing to forgive and have mercy on us; help us to be willing to forgive ourselves and others; and help us to practice mercy! In the name of Jesus the Christ we pray. Amen.
In exactly two days we will be entering the year 2015! It is hard to believe that a whole year has gone by already! Many people made resolutions as they entered 2014. Some of those resolutions were kept; some were not. And as we enter 2015 more resolutions will be made. It seems as if we live from resolution to resolution. I would like to suggest one for all of us; and I pray that we will make every effort to keep it: That we start forgiving ourselves.
It is amazing that regardless of our race religion, culture, social standing, there are people who find it hard to forgive themselves. We preach forgiveness, teach forgiveness, recommend forgiveness, yet so few really practice forgiveness. I believe if we make a firm decision not only a resolution, that no matter what the situation we will be willing to forgive ourselves we eventually will!.
Our Scripture for today speaks about four amazing steps in God’s dealings with His people: Pardon, Pass over, Let go, delight in! Let us take a few minutes to analyze each one:
Pardon: I took a few minutes to look a little closer at what the word means in the original Hebrew and found some rather interesting meanings. Perhaps the three most important were, “to lift, to carry, to take away” (Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible Old Testament Dictionary). What was most interesting to me was the progressive action. When Christ pardoned us, He lifted the load of our sins off of us and took it upon Himself. He then carried it up the hill to Golgotha and had it nailed to a tree. Then He took it with Him to the grave, and remembers it no more! Glory! Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Pass over: When I read this portion of the verse I immediately thought of the night of the Exodus from Egypt. The Israelites were to paint the blood of a flawless lamb on the doorposts of their homes. When the destroying angel was going through the land of Egypt destroying all the firstborn, whenever he saw the blood he passed over that home. No life was destroyed. Christ became our Passover Lamb; therefore, through His blood our lives have been spared!
Let go: The opposite of retaining (holding on with one’s might; persevering). One of the things that make forgiveness so difficult, and at times impossible, is because we do not know how to let go. This action on Gods part is referred to in this passage as “not retain[ing] His anger forever.” God does not overlook our sin. He deals with it through the sacrifice of His own Son. But once it has been confessed He lets go of it. Thank God! May we learn to do the same with our shortcomings and the shortcomings of others in the new year.
He delights in mercy. One of the beatitudes read: ‘Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.’ Mercy is one of the outstanding attributes of God. “His mercy endures forever.” “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed.” Anger and mercy are not in agreement. One excludes the other. How much more pleasant is the feeling of mercy than that of anger. May we spend sufficient time in the presence of God until His mercy overcomes our anger.
I believe if we study these steps in the life of Christ, we will become more like Him, and learning to forgive ourselves and others will be attainable in 2015.
We will continue this conversation tomorrow.