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Closing the Gap 7.13.18

Week 27 Day 5

Pray:

Ask God to reorient you to Himself. Confess any known sin. Thank Him for His forgiveness. Be still and reflect on Jesus and His sacrifice for you. Ask the Holy Spirit to open your heart and mind to God’s Word. Pray for others in your life that they, too, would know and love God today.

Read:

Matt. 6:9-13 This, then, is how you should pray: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”

Reflect:

The good news of the gospel is that God forgives us more quickly and more completely than we forgive others. Of course we are to forgive as we have been forgiven, but the fact remains that we are just not as good at forgiving as God is.  As much as we might intend to not hold people in their past, we cannot help “seeing” past choices in the present as we deal with others. We cannot help but to “remember” the sins of others. God on the other hand, though his memory is perfect and immediate, is able to “not remember” our sins.  “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more” (Isa. 43:25). Of course this doesn’t mean God forgets, it is a figure of speech that indicates God is able to see the “present us” untainted by the “past us” because he sees us through the window of Jesus’ death for us.  “He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Ps. 103:10-12). Do you believe God truly sees you right now, if you have received his Son, as forgiven?  Think carefully about this question. Your sins are forgiven and your sins are forgotten. As you look at the “real you”, you see failure. As he looks at the real you, he sees forgiven. This is not an easy thing to grasp, so it is important that you take the time to grapple with it. Finish your time right now by reflecting carefully on this verse: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).  Glance at your sins…then confess them. Gaze at your savior…and consider him. This kind of spiritual and mental exercise of the truth will be a powerful factor in changing you into a person who more and more remembers less and less the sins of others towards you.

Pray:

(Personalize this prayer today; make it specific to the circumstances that face you.)

Ask God to lead you through His Spirit as you go through your day. Ask Him to bring to mind the truth of the gospel and its implications for what you will encounter today. Tell Him “Yes” to His will and ask Him for His power and protection to live this “yes.” Ask God to create and reveal opportunities to proclaim the good news today.

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