forgiveness is divine

my thoughts on forgiveness

Our church has been doing a series of sermons about being Unstoppable as a church, as a christian, and as a person. So far we have covered unstoppable love, unstoppable courage and our music director surprised me by stepping away from lead vocals and leading the service instead.  He covered Unstoppable Pursuit:  about how God was helping him to have the courage to pursue new challenges and how he pursues God. He always shows such passion for his work through song and I was inspired by how authentic and eloquent he was with this topic.  He talked about how to pursue something real with God.  Here are his 4 H's:  Humility, Honesty, Honor, and Hunger.  He uses these when he prays.  First, he humbles himself, seeking God's forgiveness and mercy.  Then, he is honest...opens up and admits what he really feels and needs.  He honors God by submitting to His authority and most importantly, he hungers for God---communes with God.  Listens.  I am good with this formula...I will use it in my own prayers.  He mentions that when we mess up, we don't always run to God for forgiveness right away and this seperates us from Him.  We ignore the nagging sense of guilt and think that it wasn't really such big deal after all.  Right?  Probably not that big of a deal so we put it on a back burner.  Oh, it's still there...kind of cooking on low.  Ignored none the less.  Then, we are human and we goof again because that's what humans do, and we step a little further away from God... and His authority.  Naughty children.   The pastor was questioning why we did this because God will forgive us with open arms every time.  A light went off right then for me...it was almost blinding!  God forgives us every time...but He uses divine forgiveness.  Divine forgiveness is complete.  Human forgiveness, however, is not and that is why we don't rush to God to seek forgiveness.  We understand fully how human forgiveness works, don't we?   When you (and by you I mean EVERYBODY) has to forgive, we hold back a little, right?  We pout a little longer, right?  We can't  tear down the wall of hurt completely or we might get hurt again.  We don't quite trust the offender completely right away...if ever.  We give them a look of...well, what kind of look is it?  Disgust?  Hurt?  Anger?  Disappointment?  You know the look--your parents used it on you time and time again.  It is scalding and can knock any truly repentive offender down to their knees in shame.  It hurts to have hurt someone so much that they look at you differently...like they don't even know you.  But God doesn't do that!!!!!!  I get cold chills and teary eyed when I think that God forgives me completely.  I am so low, so bad, so unworthy, but He loves me just as He always has and always will.  It is unconditional!!!  Go to God right now and thank him for forgiving you!  Forgiveness is divine!  Thank God it is!!! 

Author's Note

I have recently started back to church after years of having church in my car. What I mean is that I only prayed in my car on my way to work and couldn't find the time to actually go to church. I am now going to a wonderful church that is helping me heal and become a better child of God. I am spiritual, non-denominational, and felt the urge to share my thoughts even though I am not a scholar, pastor, or leader. I am just another person trying to make sense of it all.

Reviews

[Melissa Lynn Cox]

Thanks Julia T. for your review. I knew you would catch my mistakes! I corrected the wierd sentence that had "Lastly" just sitting there for some strange reason and changed the intro to better explain the topic (I hope).

[Lady Celery]

I really enjoyed this piece. I thought it was totally real with how God's forgiveness works.

I had a question, though. You said "unstoppable pursuit," and I'm pretty sure you meant to say unstoppable pursuits as a plural. Actually, that's not much of a question... oh well :)

Also, where you said "and Lastly and most importantly." I can see that you meant to get rid of the first "and" and then make "Lastly" the beginning of a new sentence, but it's not there. I've done that before myself. I just kind of forget that I didn't put a period somewhere. :)

Other than that, I didn't see any problems... good job! I really liked it!

[Jana Greene]

Beautiful, succinct and relevant. Thank you for sharing that piece!