“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.” – Psalm 51:1
*Tyler’s grandmother raised him in a rough neighborhood. She urged him to stay in school and not get involved with the local gangs.
But Tyler was eager for the affection and protection of family that a gang leader promised when he was recruited.
One day, some of the guys decided to rob a bank. During the robbery, one gang member shot a security guard. Tyler stayed behind in an effort to save the dying man but it was too late.
That’s how Tyler found himself serving life in prison at only nineteen. A few months into his stay, his grandmother’s church organized a prison ministry. The church group would share the Word of God with the inmates and encourage them each week.
At first, Tyler attended the meetings because it gave him an excuse to be out of his cell for an extra hour. But the more he listened, the more curious he became about Jesus.
He began to ask his grandmother’s pastor questions about God, how he had designed the world, and what it really meant to be a Christ follower. The other man listened patiently and answered Tyler’s questions.
One day after the church group had shared Psalm 51, Tyler asked, “Is my sin too great? Can God forgive even me, the murderer?”
The pastor smiled and shared the story behind that chapter of the Psalms. “It was written after David had an affair with a married woman. When he discovered she was pregnant, he had her husband killed in battle. Yet God still forgave David when he confessed his sin. There is no sin so dark that the blood of Jesus cannot cover it.”
When Tyler heard this, he decided to become a Christ follower, too. He prayed with the pastor, gratefully accepting Christ’s gifts of forgiveness and eternal life. Most likely since you are reading a blog written by a pastor from upstate New York you already know all this. But in my years of vocational ministry I have learned that people in general, even ministers, FORGET.
The Bible says “but God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” – Romans 5:8
Although you may be saved and no longer in bondage to sin, we still fall short of the glory of God don’t we? That means we fall short of perfection.
We can not compare, so in order to be sanctified and cleansed of our sins we need true repentance and forgiveness from God. But do we know and trust God to handle it or do we just tell ourselves to try harder? Well, how does He handle it?
Through Confessing our sins to God, Repenting (which is different than just admitting to it), and accepting Christ’s forgiveness through what He did on the cross. Let’s never grow tired of repenting, let us just need it less and for lesser things as we grow in the Lord.
“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
God, thank You for Your forgiveness. Thank You for having mercy on me. Please blot out my sins and help me to walk in Your ways. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
*Names and details have been slightly altered to protect the anonymity of all involved.
