THANKFUL

Chatting with Jesus

Friday, July 22, 2022

Lord, Your Spirit gave the psalmist new revelations about Your holy attributes of mercy, grace and forgiveness, and Your unfailing love. He recorded these truths in his great blessings psalm, (Psalm 103). As a believer, he reflected on his personal struggles to conquer his many flaws, striving to maintain the integrity of his relationship with You. Swap the psalmist’s name with mine and our stories are close to the same. As a Christ-follower, I’m in total agreement with his interpretation of Your forgiveness, of not holding our sins against us. Your patience with us as we rise and fall in our efforts to live for You clearly demonstrates how You are sooo slow to anger.

The psalmist must have been humbled when he wrote of Your mercy:

“He doesn’t endlessly nag and scold, nor hold grudges forever. He doesn’t treat us as our sins deserve, nor pay us back in full for our wrongs.” — Psalm 103:9,10 (The Message)

Lord, how humbling to know that despite the evidence, You will never bring a court case against me for my trespasses against You. And how can I not forgive those who offend me when You took my guilt and put it on Jesus. And why did Jesus willingly give me His goodness in exchange for my sins? He didn’t do anything wrong, so what kind of deal is that?

Centuries later, the prophet Isaiah described that “kind of deal.” He wrote:

“We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost. We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong, on Him, on Him [Jesus].” — Isaiah 53:6 (The Message)

Lord, putting my sins, and everyone else’s sins, on Jesus was Your plan? That was Your “kind of deal?” Your great attributes of love and mercy, forgiveness and restoration, Your holy character, is beyond our human description. I can only humbly and gratefully say, Thank You God, thank You Jesus. Amen.