What God Does with Our Sins

We don’t always think the way God thinks. What He does with our sin after we confess them to Him often boggles the mind. It’s difficult to wrap our head around His immeasurable love for us. But we love serving a God that we can’t measure His love for us, right?

What does the Lord do with our sins?

He puts them on Jesus (And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:6b) and Jesus takes them away (John 1:29). He doesn’t condemn us (John 8:11; Romans 8:1), but instead forgives.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9

They are removed, not the same as a distant cousin twice removed and keeps coming back. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. Psalm 103:12 How far is the east from the west? An incalculable distance, another unfathomable thought!

We have a difficult time forgetting the mistakes we made, and You Know Who likes to try to remind us of them. But God doesn’t remember them anymore (Hebrews 10:17). And neither should we! It’s part of our covenant.

I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins. Isaiah 43:25

I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions, and like a cloud, your sins. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you. Isaiah 44:22

We are incredibly blessed to have the love of such a God quite within our reach!

Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin. Romans 4:7-8

When I try to understand this it has the same effect as trying to think about how eternity just goes on and on and ON and ON! My brain smarts! But we don’t have to understand it, only believe it!

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Photo credit: dweebydude5 (Creative Commons)

Day 39: How to Deal with Hurt and Rejection

From the 40 Days of Daily Bread Series.

One time someone that didn’t like me sabotaged my part in a special ceremony. An honor that was rightfully mine was going to be announced as I arrived. The person maliciously changed the announcers list just minutes before the special moment, so the unsuspecting announcer gave the honor to someone else. I was hurt…deeply.

Afterwards, I was in my bedroom weeping, telling God how hurt I was. Through muffled sobs I heard a knock at my door. My parents came in and my mom said that she felt the Lord repeatedly saying, “Go hug Kelly,” but they didn’t know why yet. God hears the cry of a broken heart and that day I learned about how to deal with the pain of someone hurting you.

Victim Mentality

It is not a sin to feel hurt, but I thought it was okay (my right) to remain mad at that person because I was the victim in the situation. When we are a victim of being entangled in the pain of a hurting heart, we have a tendency to cling to our “rights.” Yet a child of God does not have rights because he has surrendered his life to the Father.

The Response

We all experience both real and perceived rejection, both of which need to be dealt with the same way. I learned that I had a choice to make: react with the habit patterns of the “old nature” and walk in the sin areas of resentment, anger, or self-pity?…Or choose to act with forgiveness, love, etc.? The “new nature” reveals itself through thoughts, speech and behavior of walking in the Spirit.

Healing

You have probably heard many times before to forgive, but don’t tune me out! It is the first step in your healing process, and as I wrote in another post, each time I forgave the same person for the same offense I received healing in place of the bitterness that was trying to take root.

The Ride of Rejection

When you get hurt, it’s like being taken for an uncontrollable ride. When we don’t humble ourselves and respond properly to feelings of hurt and rejection then speculative doubt turns into illusions of doubt, and finally actions of separation. We divorce our spouse, change our friends, or leave the church because rejection rejects. I’ll talk about this more another day.

Apply the Word

This section is to help us respond to His promptings. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. James 1:22

• Print this Hurt & Rejection Chart as a reminder of how to respond properly to hurt and rejection in your life. It was created by my mother, a pastor’s wife in the ministry for about 30 years.

My guess is that you haven’t clicked on that link yet. What are you waiting for?

Our Daily Bread for tomorrow will be the wrap up for our 40 Days of Daily Bread. Subscribe so you don’t miss it!

Photo credit: Amber Karnes (Creative Commons)

I Really Don’t Like That Person

Photo credit: JMParrone (flickr)

There are probably a few people you don’t like. I don’t mean people who work in politics, but someone who is in your neighborhood, work place or even (gasp!) at church. There has probably been a face or two that have come to mind. Who are they? Get that face fixed in your head now.

Do you inwardly groan when you see that person’s name pop up on your caller ID, or when you see him walking toward you?

Do you try to avoid that person?

Do you ever seek that person out to ask, “How are you?” Or only when you have to upon occasion of passing?

Does your heart feel yucky at the mention of his name?

Would you say you “really don’t like him”? Or hate him? Or not that you “really don’t like him,” it’s that you just “don’t like” him? Does it even matter that you don’t like him, really don’t like him, or hate him? The question is, do you love him? If we’re going to play semantics then the word love in the following verses means “fond of.” So in reality, if you’re not fond of that person, then you are really in trouble.

He who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no offense in him. But he who hates his brother is in darkness, and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because darkness has blinded his eyes. 1 John 2:9-11MKJV

We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brothers. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Everyone hating his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has everlasting life abiding in him. By this we have known the love of God, because He laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 1 John 3:14-16 MKJV

I am not the Judge. God is. Do you need to repent? Repentance simply means you are changing the direction you are going. Which way are you going to go with this? Do you need to change how you feel toward that person?

UPDATE: When I was studying the word love in the above verses, I forgot about the three types of love in the Greek, which all mean different things. The type of love in these verses is the same word given toward the brethren, as well as all men (including enemies in Matthew 5:44), and it does not mean having an affection for them. I originally mixed up two of the types.

Ultimately this post was not a study of the different types of love. My point for this post is that too often people say, “I love them, but I don’t like them,” as an excuse to abandon looking at the motive of their heart. I don’t believe that that’s God’s best for us.

Frustrating God’s Grace

It was one of those days. I had taken the kids to run several errands. It was getting late and we were all hungry. Unfortunately the plan to leave for home in time to beat rush hour didn’t materialize. I started to count the minutes left before my son’s bedtime, wondering if I was going to have time to feed him. We were not only sitting in traffic, but sitting at the same intersection a couple of times through the light rotations because the lights were timed wrong. Why don’t they fix these lights for rush hour? It just makes the problem worse. The light at the block ahead of me turned green breaking my thoughts.

Photo credit: furiousgeorge81 (flickr)

Swiftly, the block ahead of me started to clear out during their green light and I was still trapped at my red light, first in a long line of cars. I glanced at the changing lights. Mine was about to turn green. Good! The lights at the block ahead of me were still green. Yes!

As soon as my light turned green, I hit the gas subconsciously pleading with the light ahead of me to stay green. As I was gaining speed my hopefulness started to fade into a desperation for mercy: the lights were about to change. I was nearly there. No cops. The intersection was clear in front of me, a green light beckoning me, nothing to hinder me. I’m probably not going to make it. I’m already committed. I went for it.

It was the most graceful running-the-red-light-at-the-last-second you ever saw.

Instantly I felt like dirt. Snap! I’ve told God before I wouldn’t run any red lights. My spirit-man groaned. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Lord!” I said aloud. I knew I was forgiven, but I also knew I was about to be corrected. I felt the Lord prompting me to analyze what happened.

In a split second I made a decision to keep going. I was already committed. Um…that sounds like an excuse. Okay…I was already committed even though something in me knew I was just barely going to end up running a red light. Sigh… That was sinning willfully.

I felt Him say, “What about before that?” Before that?! What was there before that? Oh!… No cops. I suddenly felt very alone in the midst of rush hour traffic. I looked to see if there were any cops before I decided to run the red light…as if my sin didn’t count. Wow!

I have always gathered from the following scripture references that we are not supposed to sin just because we know that we can ask for forgiveness right afterward. So I have tried to make it a habit to not do that kind of thing.

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Romans 6:1-2

For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Romans 6:14-5

God showed me my double standard. What if someone else had been in the car? But the Omnipresent God was there. He did see. People are not the ones who are The Judge. It doesn’t matter if there is a cop watching. God is watching. It doesn’t matter if a Pastor is standing in the room. God is there.

How to Forgive

Photo credit: batega (flickr)

When I was a teenager, I used to shun interaction with my family because I felt incredibly hurt and perceived I was rejected by them. Rejection rejects. How could I feel so betrayed in a pastor’s family?

Someone gave me a tape by a pastor who had unforgiveness toward his congregation (I don’t remember who it was). After listening to it, I knew God wanted me to write down each family member’s name and each way I felt they had done me wrong. The scribbles on my paper looked like a mountain! Then it dawned on me: I had an enormous mountain of unforgiveness toward my family.

Forgiveness is usually more difficult for the one doing the forgiving than the one being forgiven. We might forgive someone, but not completely. The devil might try to convince you that the person owes you an apology in order for the relationship to be reconciled. But what if the person doesn’t say he is sorry? How we consciously respond to that question is critical.

To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ; lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices. 2 Corinthians 2:10-11

Forgiving others is so important that Jesus said that the Father won’t forgive us if we don’t forgive others (Matthew 6:15). How do we do that without it cropping up again? When dealing with my mountain of offenses, I utilized the five keys to unlocking the bondage of unforgiveness that I learned as a teenager:

1. I completely forgive [insert his name] for [say what he did to me].
2. [Insert his name] owes me nothing, not even an apology, for [say what he did to me].
3. I forget that [insert his name] for [say what he did to me].
4. I renounce any negative feeling I have toward [insert his name].
5. Father, help me see [insert his name] through Your eyes and with Your love.

Healing

I’ve had to repeat this powerful process innumerable times in my relationships, and each time I have experienced amazing healing. Peter asked Jesus how many times we are supposed to forgive someone. “Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, until seven times: but, until seventy times seven.” (Matthew 18:22) The principle of forgiving from the heart stands above the place of tracking an exact number of offenses. Those who practice putting a limit on forgiveness will be overtaken by a root of bitterness.

It is possible that you may need to forgive someone more than 490 times. I’ve had to instruct my boys in forgiving one another a couple hundred times before they were even out of kindergarten!

Question: How has forgiving changed your relationship with someone?