Feeling Forgiven

For various reasons people can have problems feeling that God may not forgive them. Faith is about taking on God's truth no matter how strong you feel otherwise. Over time we find faith replaces doubts and we find it easier to accept incredible truths that Jesus has done what he has done. No matter how holy others seem or make themselves out to be no-one will ever be up to scratch! Our responsibility is to respond to our shortfalls with repentance, putting plans into place to not go down the sinful route. We all want to be perfect and one day we will stand before the Lord whole, with no inclination to sin.

Jesus is our advocate, like a lawyer before God. He deals with it all. Sometimes there are deep rooted reasons why we feel like we are some 'special case' who never seems to be able to stop sinning. The truth is that everyone is struglling in some area of life. Sometimes we meet people who seem 'oh-so-perfect.' We can feel intimidated by their super Christian life and how they seem victorious over all sin. Here's a fact: If you live your life without being aware of some area that needs the Lord's work then you are deluded. Of course you could live in isolation from the world, couped up in a safe room with no outside influences to challenge your life. If this is you then you are not living your life to the full. Holiness is important but we cannot wrap ourselves in cotton wool in order to appear sinless! get out into this world, be salt and light and allow your own shortfalls to be made known to you. This is God's grace at work!

Some Christians don't understand Jesus words in Mark chapter 7. In short Jesus was saying that we should not assess the status of our righteousness by the amount of evils we can see in this world. The fallen heart of Man is capable of making anything into a river of sin! So as we live our lives be sure that there will be new challenges to deal with as time goes by. This is not an indication of your weakness, but a sign that you are living a Christian life sensitive to what is right and wrong. There are three types of righteousness:

Made Righteous: God made you righteous through Christ's finished work

Self Righteous: Your own actions are right.... because you say so!

Traditio-Righteous: You make up additional stuff based on man's wisdom

Sadly many of today's clergy have their own traditions as sacred as God's word. About three months after getting married we were expecting our first child. The pastors wife was less than happy for us. The reason was because it was considered 'wise' to wait 2 years after marrying before considering children! A fair comment I guess, but this had become more a law than general advice! Advice is all well and good as long as it doesn't become a commanding voice.