This past school year, we have been teaching and getting the kids at Kingston-Galloway to understand what forgiveness is and how to apply it to their day to day. One of God’s promises to us is, if we confess our sins, God will forgive our sins and cleanse us.
“But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.” ~1 John 1:9
This promise is an incredible promise. It is a reminder of the Gospel and a revelation of what God’s character is. But before we can understand God’s forgiveness, we need to understand what is sin and we are sinful. We are not a little bit sinful but we are just sinful. We need to understand the sin we have. From the moment of birth till now, we are ALL sinners. We have decided to choose against God with our day-to-day choices from the very beginning with Adam and Eve. Our heart has been changed to do everything opposite of God. No matter the magnitude of the sin, sin is sin. We don’t deserve the gift of eternal life.
It will be quite sad that is the end of our relationship with God. In the Gospel, we understand God offers us second chances, He provides us mercy and grace through Jesus Christ. He gave his one and only son to sacrifice and die in our place. God’s forgiveness has no end, it is never too late as long we confess our sins to Him.
The kids at Kingston-Galloway understand they make mistakes and they sin. At times, some kids may feel like they are “too bad” to receive God’s love. And some, who just think they are not bad people. For us to ultimately experience God’s forgiveness, we need to understand all the wrong we have done to God. Has God opened your eyes to the sin you have committed and you have not confessed?
We make mistakes, small or big.
We will make mistakes, today or tomorrow.
We need God to help us.
We need God’s forgiveness to cleanse us.
God sent Jesus to clean the slate for us.
We continue to remind the children the biggest mistake cannot even separate us from the love of God. We are reminded that is it never too late to ask forgiveness and forgive others.
““And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” ”
As we experience God’s forgiveness, we need to also extend this forgiveness to those who wrong us because of Christ. As much as our sin and pride tell us to punish the person. We need to ask God to give us the love and humbleness to forgive them.
We have been teaching our kids sometimes you will meet people who are not so easy to love and forgive. But we can ask God to teach us to love them. As we continue the school year, meet new friends and friends, may God remind us we can ask God to help us forgive those who wronged us and to offer the forgiveness God has given us.