A Trust Issue

Some thoughts on repentance and forgiveness:

There is not a single part of God that He has not offered us. We've been given His love in full, and along with that comes everything else because everything He does is based in and on love because He is love. He has held nothing back. We can go as far and as deep into relationship with Him as we want. Love is not forced, it is willfully decided upon, and so He gives us the choice to choose Him.

With that in mind, I've learned that forgiveness isn't just something that I ask for, because asking for something implies that I don't have it yet. Forgiveness is more of something I must learn to accept, this way, when I repent, it serves as an expression of gratitude rather than an attempt to earn forgiveness. So the order of forgiveness and then repentance, rather than repentance and then forgiveness, I think is absolutely crucial for understanding the gospel of grace. Repentance is not what I do in order to earn forgiveness, it's what I do because I have been forgiven. So it really comes down to a trust issue, because trust defines the meaning of living by grace rather than works. Trusting that every sin I've ever committed and will commit is paid for way before I could repent and ask for forgiveness is huge part of being in right relationship with our Savior.

One of my favorite verses:

Romans 5:8 - "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

I don't know about you, but this so very much excites me deeply. There's something absolutely beautiful that happens to a person when they grasp the idea of grace, that He is forgiven before he asks for it. There is a freedom he receives and lives in, through the understanding of this grace, even though he knows he will still continue to sin. We have been set free from the sin which we once had no power over. We are redeemed and are being sanctified as we seek Him.

I think then that when a person starts to get this grace thing, that another set of wires of understanding must connect and bring them to the realization that in order to really fully accept Gods grace means he must also fully embrace his fallenness, knowing that the full redemption in Christ won't happen until he is taken up into paradise, because if we were perfect now or could gain perfection in this life, then we wouldn't need the death of our Lord and King.

Oh Lord, that You would, I desperately plead, continuously take me deeper in the understanding of Your grace and love. Lord, that I might continue to grow in trusting You, the hope of my salvation, the source of my life.

I let go of the grip on my life and this world, and fall into You. Immerse me in You. Being lost in You is when I truly live. Consume my heart, my thoughts, all I am and do. I am Yours forever. Break me, teach me, guide me, lead me, use me, shape me, hold me, take me deeper into You. For Your honor, Your glory, and Your fame do I live and love.