God-Who-Forgives

 Understanding forgiveness is a key to living an abundant life. However, I am afraid most people do not really understand what God does when He forgives us. They get confused because they do not understand. It is not that God doesn't forgive them, but He doesn't always do it the way they want Him to do it. Therefore, we need to make sure we are understanding Him and not being upset with Him.

The psalmist gave us a good verse to help us understand how God forgives when he was writing about God dealing with Israel. (Psalm 99:8) He said that the Lord their God answered their prayers. He was to them God-Who-Forgives, even though He took vengeance on their deeds. Most people don't understand how God forgives and still takes vengeance on the sinful deeds. Let me explain.

Our sins separate us from God. When we pray and ask God to forgive our sins by turning from our sins, trusting Jesus to save us because of His sacrifice for our sins and surrender to Him as Lord, our relationship with God is restored. We are reconciled to God. Then, after we are reconciled, we are confess our sins to Him, so He can cleanse us, and our relationship can be as close as it ought to be. In any case when God forgives our sins, we are made right with Him.

He still takes vengeance on our evil deeds because He is holy, and He must punish sins. Just because we ask for forgiveness doesn't mean we get off with no consequences. If God did that, we would be tempted to sin more and more, because we would know we could just ask for forgiveness and be let off. God loves us so He wants us to stop sinning, not just be forgiven, so He still punishes us when we sin. He wants us to be really living holy lives, because that is the best life possible for all of us.

#NHBaptistdotorg

Tomorrow, I intend to read Psalm 101-103.