Saturday, July 4, 2015

God's Promises...series ... 1 John 1:9

God's Promises

 

by

John Bradshaw

 
"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
 and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 
1 John 1:9
 
A lady asked me one day if God would forgive her for a certain sin she had committed. When I assured her that, yes, God would forgive her, she said, "But it was a terrible thing I did."
"That's okay," I told her, "God will forgive even the terrible things you've done."
She explained to me that what she'd done was "really, really bad" and that the weight of this awful sin had been pressing upon her ever since she committed it--more than 50 years, sometimes many times a day...I figured she had confessed this sin to God at least 20,000 times!
 
"Do you believe God?" I asked her. "why yes," she asserted. "Of course I do!"
 
Well, it seems to me that you actually think that God is a liar," I answered. "Let's look at a verse in the Bible together."
 
I opened my Bible to 1 John 1:9 and read, "If we confess our sins...You've done that, right?"
"Yes, many, many ties!" "He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins... Do you believe that?
 
"If it's in the Bible, I believe it," She said without any hesitancy.
...and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
 
 
"If you really believe the Bible, then you can accept what God says here and  you don't need o confess that sin ever again. In fact, to confess it again would be to tell God that you don't believe what He says!"
 
The next time I saw her, she told me that on the night of our conversation, she had the best night's sleep she'd had in more than half a century. If you've sinned, God is willing and able to forgive you. You should never doubt for a moment that God will pardon you. He has promised.  
 

1 comment:

  1. Amen to that. When we can't sense ourselves as having been forgiven, I think that can be the most corrosive thing to our faith: I know I've had that feeling and felt like God had utterly abandoned me. Your friend seems to have kept her faith intact though that experience though, and that says to me she's a person of the very strongest faith and belief!

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