TODAY IS…

an excellent day to make your guilt disappear.

“Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt, whose lives are lived in complete honesty!”  Psalm 32:2 NLT

It is impossible to read the Bible without seeing one glaring truth: God wants to forgive sinners. Time and time again, He makes it clear to us that He has an unlimited capacity for forgiveness and He wants us to look to Him to ask forgiveness for our sins so that we may experience the joy that David wrote about in Psalm 32.

Many of us know how trying it can be to raise children.

Sometimes they do things, both innocently and intentionally, that are wrong. Frequently, these things hurt us as parents. They cause us to feel inadequate perhaps, but they also cause us to feel pain for our children because we know that what they are doing is a mistake, and we know it will hurt them in the long run.

But we forgive them each transgression because we love them.

That is the relationship God has with us, only He can see with much greater clarity the negative impact that our sinful nature and disobedience will have upon us. Nehemiah, leading his people in prayer, recalls the sinfully disobedient nature of the people Moses led out of Egypt.

“They refused to listen, and did not remember Your wondrous deeds which You had performed among them; so they became stubborn and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But You are a God of forgiveness, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in loving-kindness; and You did not forsake them.” (Nehemiah 9:17 NASB).

“A God of forgiveness, gracious and compassionate.”

We can all derive reassurance from these words that no matter how foolishly, irresponsibly, or immorally we may live our lives; no matter how much we ignore God; no matter how rebellious we may be – when we have had enough of ourselves and are ready to admit that we were wrong, God is right in front of us, with open arms, ready to forgive.

Making our guilt disappear is not a magic trick.

It is the miracle of love from the One who knows no other way but to love. It is the gift of forgiveness that makes our guilt disappear and it is a gift that is available to us anytime, anyplace, and no matter what we have done.

Some of us may find it awkward to ask for God to forgive us because we think we have been so bad. But in the history of mankind, God has seen many people ask for forgiveness, and many of them have done much worse than we might have. Ask God for His gift of forgiveness and the gift of joy that comes when He works His “magic” and makes the guilt disappear will be yours.

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Taken from “TODAY IS….A Gift From God”, (C) 2013 Tony Casson