Forgiven

 

In 1990 there was a man who used to go to church with me who was down on his luck.  He had a roofing job to do, but he didn’t have any tools.  I didn’t know what had happened to his tools, but he just didn’t have any.  So, I loaned him some extra roofing tools that I had: a circular saw, a prybar, a hammer, and a tape measure.  He never returned the tools, and I never heard from him.  I saw him about two years later in the grocery store (from a distance), and he saw me.  But he didn’t think that I saw him, and he quickly went around another way.  I looked for him to explain that I didn’t care about the tools: they were extra anyway, and I cared more about our friendship that the tools.  I went down aisle after aisle looking for him, but only caught a glance of him dodging me.  I bought my grocery items and left.  Twenty years later, he contacted me on facebook and apologized.  I assured him of our friendship, and that he had nothing to worry about.  The tools were nothing to me, but the debt had bothered him to the point of ruining our relationship.  What a picture of us and our sin before a loving, forgiving heavenly Father!  God searches us out desiring fellowship.  But our guilt dogs us and we run from God.  We should be running toward Him in confession. The old apostle John wrote in I John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  God wants a relationship with us, His creation.  He wants to forgive … if we but come to Him in honesty.  Hey, stop running from God.  He loves you.  Confess your sin, He already knows all about it.  Your relationship is more important than anything.  After all, God made you to love Him and to have fellowship with Him forever.