Forgiveness Is Yours; Accept It
“I’ll never be a non-stumbler. I’ll be a forgiven stumbler, but never a non-stumbler.”
∼TobyMac
Too often I wring my hands in discouragement as once again, despite all my good intentions, I slip into self-pleasing behavior instead of God-pleasing.
And in that place, I tend to carry around guilt and condemnation, asking scathing questions:
“As a Christian who loves the Lord, shouldn’t I be past this?”
“What is wrong with me?”
“How can God love me when I continue to mess up?”
Maybe you find yourself asking the same questions.
You and I are in good company in the struggles with our flesh.
In the book of Romans, the Apostle Paul wrote passionately about his conflict with his sin nature.
“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do…. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.” Romans 7:15, 18b-19
Does this sound like your own battle?
Forgiveness, a Gift
In her book Embrace Grace, Author and speaker Liz Curtis Higgs offers us comfort based on God’s truth. She reminds us that condemnation has been removed for all who are in Christ, not as a result of any good thing we’ve done, but because of the best thing Jesus Christ did for us.
I love how she puts it:
“With God, it’s always Christmas.
And always Easter.
The gift of his Son’s birth.
The gift of his Son’s blood.”
Forgiveness, a gift, for you and me, for all who believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior … even when we mess up.
'With God, it’s always Christmas. And always Easter. The gift of his Son’s birth. The gift of his Son’s blood.' —Liz Curtis Higgs. Forgiveness, a gift for you and me, for all who believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior…even when we mess up. Share on X
We don’t have to wait until we have it altogether. We don’t have to get our act together first. God invites us to “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).
Messy.
Weary.
Hesitant.
Sinner.
but
Forgiven!
What a glorious act! The Master of all, the Creator of the universe Himself, forgiving me and you. Dirty and stained we arrive, white as snow we will be.
No, we shouldn’t be happy when we stumble, but we should be ecstatic that in our stumbling, we are forgiven.
God promises; so go ahead, believe Him, accept His forgiveness. It’s yours; a gift that cost the Giver much.
We all are stumblers, but in Christ, we all are forgiven stumblers. Share on X
We all are stumblers, but in Christ, we all are forgiven stumblers. In that state, join me in echoing Paul’s words of freedom:
“Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Romans 7:25
Reflections: Have you found it difficult to accept God’s forgiveness? How would you define a “forgiven stumbler”?
I’m excited to continue recording blessings this year. Since beginning over 3 years ago, I’ve counted more than 3,500 gifts in Ann Voskamp’s Joy Dare! What a blessing! So here we go in 2015: #3702–3722, read my entire list by clicking here.
- My understanding family as I scrambled today; Having one of my big guys home; Fun of a brainstorming session playing with words
- An afternoon of outside play; Rach finally bonding with our dog after 6 years; A little mud play for my girl
- *Hiking with two of my favorite guys; *Spying on our resident eagle; *Rachel initiated joining church youth group for the first time–she insisted Mom shouldn’t go with her!
- *Morning sun’s rays warming the couch; *Breaking out Rachel’s tricycle for a walk; *Bubbling sound of pre-spring runoff
- *The grocery store is packed with food for me to purchase; *My church doors are open for me to enter throughout the day; *My children are healthy enough to laugh and play
- 3 hen pheasants flying over the prairie; Parsnips dug and ate and magnolia trees moved; Night of games on the eve of Zach’s return to college
- 5 hours of undivided time with Zach as I returned him to school; Lovely color palette of the evening sky; Brilliance of a cityscape at night
Linking this post with Kelly Balarie for her #RaRalinkup. Click on the image to read all the encouragement.
*affiliate link in this post
By His Grace,
Julie
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Hello, I'm Julie, an imperfect wife and mother of four. Life in this broken world is not always easy. Yet, joy can be found in each day through the grace and mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I find it's easy for our day's blessings to get lost in its happenings. But God's "mercies never end" (Lamentations 3:22) and His "grace is sufficient" (2 Corinthians 12:9).
May the posts and pages on this site offer you a measure of peace and encouragement.
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I love the scripture Ephesians 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— every time I read it or think of it, I am humbled.
God’s grace is indeed humbling, Cecelia. There’s so many beautiful verses like the Ephesians.
He delivers!!! Yes! I love this post Julie, this went straight to my heart today. Thank you 🙂
Visiting from the #RaRaLinkup
So glad you popped over, Christine. Praise God for His goodness.
And thank goodness we are forgiven stumblers! Thank you for the encouraging words. #RaRaLinkup
Amen!