Someone once said that no marriage can last if you don’t know how to ask for forgiveness.
No society can hold together, if the people in that society can’t forgive one another. And in our own lives, we’ll end up friendless, if we can’t ask for forgiveness. We need to be able to give and receive forgiveness.
Adam Hamilton, in his book simply titled “Forgiveness” says there are six words that you need to know and use to be successful in life. “I am sorry”…. and… “I forgive you.” Said from your heart, they will give you the life God intends for you to have in all of your relationships.
When we’ve said or done something that hurts another person, or gone against God’s commandments, we feel guilty. So, how do we get rid of that guilt?
In Psalm 32 the writer cries out to God for forgiveness because of his guilt. Verse four says “For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.” In Psalm 38:4 we hear similar words of despair: “My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear.”
That’s what it feels like when we are aware of our sin and we are estranged from God, the very source of our lives. Even when we hurt others with our words and actions and don’t ask for their forgiveness, we carry that sin around with us and that hurts God too. It hurts God because we, his children, have turned our backs on him once more. And when we can’t bring ourselves to say “I am sorry” or “Please forgive me” or equally important, “I forgive you” we carry that burden with us. Like the psalmist says, our guilt “…is like a burden too heavy to bear.”
The good news is that God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Christian faith, more than any other world religion that I’m aware of, has as its dominant theme the idea that God wants to forgive you, God wants to lighten your load, God is longing to bring you back to the path of righteous. You don’t have to pay any price because the price has already been paid for you by Jesus on the Cross. All you have to do is recognize your sinful act against your neighbor and your God, then say to your neighbor and to God, “I am sorry for what I’ve done. I won’t do that anymore. Please forgive me.” We call that repentance.
God keeps crying out to you, “let me have it; let me have your burden. Don’t you see that I already paid the price on the cross? Just repent and give it to me… just let it go.”
In this season of reflection and repentance we call Lent, look within yourself and seek God’s forgiveness… whatever is troubling you, just let it go. When you do, you will feel the blessings of God’s grace.
Rick Carpenter is the pastor at the United Methodist Church in Dolores and First United Methodist Church in Dove Creek.
Rick Carpenter is the pastor at the United Methodist Church in Dolores and First United Methodist Church in Dove Creek.
