Thought for the Day 26 July

Thought for Monday 26 July Micah 7: 19 NIVUK You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. When I was young my granny gave me a bible, which I started ‘reading’ before I could even pronounce most of the words, never mind understand them. Of course, I was able to ask my granny to help. The KJV is hard for adults to read so children have no chance without help. I read about the crucifixion without knowing what that word meant (granny didn’t go into detail) except that Jesus died, then His Father, God, brought him back to life. WOW!!! What a ‘man’ God must be. My gran also taught me The Lord’s Prayer and explained what forgiveness was. I have to say that I thought all the sin we had committed was written in a big book so that God could check up on us every time we did something wrong. That is a scary place for a 5/6 year old to be. As I got older I realised that sins were not written in a book, God forgot about them by ‘throwing them in the sea’. Then, getting a bit older, I got to thinking, God doesn’t forget anything so how could He forget our sins? Now my thoughts are that God doesn’t forget our sins, He chooses not to remember them. He makes the decision not to think about the sins we are guilty of, if we confess them with true remorse. He forgives us and doesn’t hold a grudge against us. Just as The  Prayer says, ‘forgive us our sin as we forgive those who sin against us’, if we truly forgive those who do us wrong we can’t afford to hold a grudge either. We must either forgive and let it go or we have not forgiven. If we want (need) God to forgive us, we must do likewise to others, it’s not an option. Prayer Forgiving Father, we confess that we are sinners and we ask You to forgive us for the times we have given in to temptation. Please help us to close our ears to the words of the one who tries so hard to turn us from Your path, the only path that we know will lead us to eternal life. Amen.