Pastor, I don't know how God can forgive me.
What were some of the reasons for feeling this sense of desperation? Feeling responsible for the divorce. Poor money management leading to bankruptcy. Trying to make someone at work look bad. Abandoning the children when they were so young. Having a fling with the neighbor next door. And these reasons are only a few of the many.
Pastor, how could God forgive a person like me?
My heart went out to those believed that God's forgiveness and grace couldn't reach out far enough to remove the guilt and shame that seemed to weigh them down like a boat anchor.
But nothing is impossible for God. And as we turned to His Word these hurting souls discovered that God can and does forgive repentant people.
Read Isaiah 55:10-11: As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and grow...so is my Word that goes out from my mount: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
God's Word will accomplish what He desires it to do - it does what it says. It can forgive the worst sinner.
When we come to worship, we come carrying some baggage. We haven't been perfectly loving or caring. We haven't obeyed God's Word. We haven't loved our neighbor. We've fallen to the "you do you" philosophy of seeking what's best for ourselves without a thought about what's best for others.
But at church we are invited to get rid of the baggage. To let go of the guilt. To discard the desperation. We confess our sins. But it doesn't end there.
God speaks to us loud and clear, clearly enough to do the thing we didn't think God could do for us. We hear the pronouncement - "Your sins are forgiven, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen."
I've also said the same words in my office or in the living room of a person's home. No matter the setting, God's Word does what it says. It forgives sin. It removes guilt. It restores hope.
One of the privileges of being a parish pastor was to assure people that "God can and has forgiven a person like you. He has done this for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ, who took that boat anchor of sin upon His shoulders and paid for it with His blood, shed on the cross.
And when Christ cried out from the cross, "It is finished!" His mission of forgiveness and redemption for the whole world was completed. Even for those who believed that they were unforgivable.
How about you? Feeling like you've said or done or thought something that God couldn't forgive. Remember that God's Word does what it says. It accomplishes what God desires. And He desires to forgive the repentant and give the assurance nothing can separate you from His love and grace. Live in that grace today!
