God's Radical Forgiveness



For the season of Lent I'll be sharing devotions from Grace Lutheran's devotional book: "Forgiven." 

While these devotions are not my words and may not represent my own faith or theological understanding, they are valuable personal faith perspectives of 40 of Grace's members and I am so grateful for their generosity in sharing them.


Part Three: Telling the Story & Naming the Hurt

Psalm 103:6-13 (God’s radical forgiveness)

The Lord works vindication
    and justice for all who are oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses,
    his acts to the people of Israel.
The Lord is merciful and gracious,
    slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
He will not always accuse,
    nor will he keep his anger forever.
He does not deal with us according to our sins,
    nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
    so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
    so far he removes our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion for his children,
    so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him.

God is love. This passage is about God’s love for us. What God does for us tells us what He’s really like. He is compassionate and gracious. He loves us unconditionally. It is nothing we can earn. It is given to all who love and fear him. He made known his ways to Moses; hid deeds to the people of Israel. Time and Ime again, the people of Israel disobeyed God’s laws when things were going good. When their disobedience caused such turmoil and hardships in their lives, they repented, begged God’s forgiveness with the promise of obedience. Their constant disobedience to God caused Him great pain. Each time they repented, as a compassionate, unconditionally loving Father, He forgave them.

I know that I hurt God when I, like the Israelites, stray from God’s laws given by Moses.

 Prayer:
Dear God, please help me be obedient to your laws. When I stray, please be compassionate and gracious to me. In Jesus name I pray.
Amen
~ Rose

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