Do you ever wish that you could turn back time? Actually, it is a feat I achieved last week thanks to the International Date Line! Travelling from New Zealand to the States, I arrived in the States before I had actually left New Zealand! Bonus! Of course on my return I then lost a day. The wonders of time zones eh!
But I am sure like me, there are times in your life when you would love to be able to rewind the clock. To make a different decision, to not say something or do something that you later regretted. Hindsight often gives us greater clarity! I’d love that when it comes to selecting which supermarket queue to join as it seems I always choose the one on a go slow.
We’ve all said or done things that we have regretted. And the enemy just loves to capitalise on that. To burden us with guilt and condemnation. To harass our minds and remove our peace. To make us feel that God is no longer for us and that the sin has created an impenetrable barrier between us and God. But God, ever the all loving Father and Redeemer, has in place this wonderful thing called forgiveness. Through Jesus taking upon Himself all our sin (past, present and future!) we can be forgiven and reconciled with God. Sin is not an impenetrable barrier.
I love how in the Anglican Liturgy, every Sunday we would bow to our knees and ask forgiveness for all our sins. I love how God remembers them no more – that we are redeemed and set free from sin. How, through the blood of Jesus, God sees us in our finished state, unblemished and forgiven. In a way, God turns back time for us – He removes our sin from the timeline of our lives.
we have sinned
in what we have thought and said,
in the wrong we have done
and in the good we have not done.
We have sinned in ignorance:
we have sinned in weakness:
we have sinned through our own deliberate fault.
We are truly sorry.
We repent and turn to you.
Forgive us, for our Saviour Christ’s sake,
and renew our lives to the glory of your name.”
“He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.” (Psalm 103:12)
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins1 and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
Blue Skies & Lollipops 