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God's Power in Forgiveness


Happy are those whose
 transgression is forgiven, 
whose sin is covered.
(From Psalm 32 )

One Sunday, after preaching a sermon on sin and forgiveness, a church member said to me, "I'm a nice person and do good things.  I don't' think I sinned yesterday and I know I haven't
today. Why do I need to pray for forgiveness?

Sadly, when the concept of sin is based on social offences, bad behaviors, or some vice, the concepts of sin and forgiveness are very limited.  

Probably none of us has fully loved God with all our hearts, souls, strength, and minds, nor our neighbor as ourselves 

And so we pray, 
Merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in 
thought, word, and deed,
 by what we have done and
 what we have left undone. 

Sin is a persistent force in our lives.

It doesn't take me much to think of what I have left undone. I don't mean little projects around the house. I mean showing appreciation for something someone's done.

It doesn't take much to recall angry or hurtful words or thoughts either.

But if sin is persistent, so is God's forgiveness.

An Old Testament pattern goes like this: God's people turn away; God forgives and the cycle repeats. Transgression.  Forgiveness. Transgression. Forgiveness.

Because he understood the power of God's forgiveness, John Wesley recommended that Methodists meet weekly to confess their sins to one another. He said "confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another that ye may be healed"

Now, Behold the butterfly. Through metamorphoses is changes from a cocoon to something beautiful. Something bound to something free.

I believe that when we truly accept who we are, recognizing our human limits, by confessing to our limits to God we are set free live a new way of life. 

Will we mess up?  Yes.

Will God forgive us? Yes.

Thanks be to God. 

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