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Moving On

Monday, November 20th
Moving On
By: Pastor Amie


“He has removed our sins as far from us,
as the east is from the west.” 
-Psalm 103:12 NLT


Divorce. Alcoholism. Addictions. Slander. Adultery. Hardened Heart. Unforgiveness until it’s too late. Jealousy. Competition. Gossip. Stealing. Lying. Self-Seeking. Coarse joking. Leaving others out. Pushing others away. Idolatry.  

This list doesn’t even come close to uncovering all the ways we can wreck relationships around us. 

Forgiving others is hard, but forgiving yourself can feel impossible. To forgive someone else places you in a position of control. I can choose to forgive or not to forgive, because I wasn’t the one who messed up. To forgive yourself requires dying to shame and the past that used to define how others saw you and how you saw yourself. Dying to our own shame is in a lot of ways, harder than dying to someone else’s. It requires leaning into truth, even before you believe it or see it. The truth that your sins are cast as far as the East is from the West.

Billy Graham once said, “In one bold stroke, forgiveness obliterates the past and permits us to enter the land of new beginnings.” 

When we move past our regrets and live into the truth that if God can forgive you, you can forgive yourself; you are gifted a fresh start. A new beginning.

Your choices are not an indicator of WHO you are, but WHERE you are. That is beautifully freeing. If our choices are a matter of direction over identity, then we can repent and change course! We can go another way! We can learn from our past. 

We can allow it to refine us without it ever defining us. Maybe it’s time you forgave yourself and truly moved on.

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