Forgiveness

In January of 2004, I wrote in my journal - "The reason you feel guilt is because there is a standard unseen written in a code buried inside you, and you know what is right and wrong. Who's code is it? I didn't put it there. He (God) put it there, so the guilt I feel is from offending Him. All I can do is ask for forgiveness from Him. Then, the only thing I have left to do is believe that He really forgave me." I wrote that but I don't think I followed my own advice.

I think that I also was focused on forgiveness for one event and I forgot one main thing: He forgave it ALL. I've recently been brought face-to-face with a reality of an old phrase - not guilty. The wonder of the gospel is not that we are innocent, but that we are not guilty. The courtroom picture is an easy analogy and I've apparently breezed past it many times because the picture is quite familiar, but if you stop and think about it, do you feel not guilty? If you don't and you carry in your mind a rememberance of all the bad things you have done, then you have not forgiven yourself and accepted His finding of not guilty. Now you can accept the verdict and walk out a free man or you can sit there and refuse to accept this gift.

The age old question: If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to see it, did it really happen? Yes, but if you don't go get it and use it for firewood, it will just lay there and rot. Are you still in the courtroom? Do you believe that God has saved you from eternal damnation, but you still feel guilty? Ask him to stamp the verdict on your heart so that you can accept the free gift of true freedom. You are not guilty and free to go. Now go give Him the glory and reach for the heights of success.