THANKFUL

Chatting with Jesus

Friday, August 16, 2024

Lord, it’s our nature to reflect on our life’s journey. Happy memories in our hearts make us smile. But we sigh deeply, remembering those rough times. Unfortunately, In the not-so-good-ole days, circumstances brought out the worst in us too many times. We acted carelessly, offending people we never meant to harm.  Controlling anger proved challenging. Too many times we lashed out in anger, spewing hateful words, crushing tender spirits.  When our charitable acts became public, our heads got too big from the kudos folks heaped on us. Wouldn’t you know it. Within moments, our ugliness displayed itself again. What regrets do we continually nurse and wish we could go back and change our actions. Oh, if only we could do life over. But we can’t.

The psalmist behaved no differently than we do. Reflecting over his life, he had issues he wished he could change. He had to take ownership of his actions and acknowledged his sin account leaned heavily on the guilty side.

Lord, your grace put the psalmist’s faith to the test:

“Lord, if you kept a record of our sins, who, O Lord, could ever survive? But you offer forgiveness, that we might learn to fear you” (Psalm 130:3-4 NLT).

Yes, Lord, like the psalmist, we are flawed beings. Imperfect is too light of a description. Over time, our sins have accumulated to the point we’ve lost count. But your Word states when we put our trust in you by trusting Jesus, who took our sins to the cross, you immediately erase our sin record. Wiped clean! As if they never happened. And then you give us a new life that is grounded in you.

What a relief, having a clean record. Amen, Jesus.