Forgiveness

               I love when God reveals things to me, even if He does it in the midst of my weakest times. So what have I learned recently? Christians need forgiveness too. I have accepted Jesus into my heart. I have been forgiven and strive to live life not for myself but for Jesus. I study God's word, fellowship with other believers  and spend time with God. So why do I still need forgiveness. I shouldn't right? I've already been forgiven. I'm a Christian now so I should no longer do anything that causes forgiveness to be needed. Wrong. Being a follower of Christ does NOT make you perfect or in any less need of forgiveness than someone who isn't a believer. Sometimes this can be hard to accept. When we are truly in love with Christ and are following Him in our lives, failing and messing up can take a pretty big hit on us. We can become mad at ourselves and think things like "I can't believe I just did that, I knew it was sinful and wrong." Accepting Jesus into our hearts and becoming a Christian does not mean we are perfect, we are still going to fail, give into temptation, hurt others and so on.That is why it is so important to understand the depths of forgiveness. Jesus didn't say, "I'll forgive you once and that's it." He has forgiven everything we've done and everything we will do. All we have to do is ask. We are sinners. Messy, broken, and dirty people who no matter how much we serve God, deserve to worship Him or come face to face with Him in heaven. The good news out of all of this? We get to experience how wonderful God's grace is. The fact that He continually offers forgiveness throughout our whole lives is amazing. Don't ever think that because you are strong in your faith you don't deserve forgiveness when you mess up. Because no one deserves it, but God gives it anyways. I learned this lesson today and it's really opened my heart and mind to the depths of God's love. You're never to strong or far in your faith to learn more. So if you're struggling with somethings and find yourself failing and falling into your desires, don't beat up on yourself. Repent, accept the grace that is freely yours, and pray for God's help to give you the strength you need in order to forgive yourself. And here is a great bible verse for all of us to remember when we fail, sin, or do something wrong.

            For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.  Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.  Hebrews 4:15-16