This week's Bible Study - January 13, 2007
Breakthrough in Forgiveness
 Background Scripture:
Psalm 32:1-11
Quote of the Week:
“To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.”
Lewis B Smedes
How important is forgiveness in life? Lack of forgiveness takes the toll on one whether they are the one who needs to forgive or the one who needs to be forgiven. If you are the one who has been wronged, you will find yourself as a prisoner to lack of forgiveness if you refuse to forgive, regardless of whether the offender asks or deserves forgiveness. If you are the offender, you know the power of guilt and remorse due to the offense you committed. All of us know what it is like to fail somebody and what it is like for someone to fail us.
One of the greatest analogies regarding relationships that I have heard is that of the "Hate Bus". I suppose it could also be called the Unforgiveness Bus. Imagine yourself as a bus driver. Think back over your life and recall those who have wronged you. As they wrong you, they get on your bus. They take a seat and just continue to ride as you drive through life. As more people offend you, more people board your bus. Over time, it is easy to see how the seats in your bus begin to become occupied. As you 'drive' through life, you look back in your mirrors and you see the people in the back, laughing and having a good time. They could seem to care less that they are on your bus. Meanwhile, you are steamed. You have been held prisoner by your own inability to forgive. When you see the need to truly forgive others, you begin to empty your bus and your life begins to return to some sense of wholeness.
We all are in need of forgiveness. We have all failed others and ourselves at one point or another, and we certainly all have failed God. Sin impacts our lives - for some it brings a sense of overwhelming guilt or remorse through life. There is a paralysis in many lives that keeps them from being, or doing. This is not God's intention. However, this is where many stay, unable to get past their own sin. This is not God's intention. While this lesson primarily speaks of the effects of sin on a life that doesn't have God's forgiveness, let us not forget that we are called to forgive others and to seek forgiveness. What happens if God were to forgive us in the same manner we forgive others?
Being blessed may imply several things, including being highly favored, or as being characterized by happiness and good fortune in ones life. Truthfully, it isn't about being happy all the time, but in the Bible, it does imply God's hand upon your life. This is something that we all desire. This passage creates a strong link between being forgiven and being blessed. When we experience forgiveness, our sins are covered and we can be blessed.
We are blessed when God does not count our sin against us. Unfortunately, we have a long memory. We know our own failures, and admittedly, sometimes we make rather large mistakes. Others may hold these failures against us for a long time, and we may hold them against ourselves for a long time. God does not count the sins of those are not deceitful in spirit against them.
On the flip side, some people think that there is a one step process of saying that we are sorry to God and then we are instantly restored. It is much deeper than that, and eventually we come to realize the impact of continuing to live in opposition to God. Our relationship with not God is not a step by step process where we must do this or that and everything is okay. God desires to bring us to the place where we are the people he intends us to be.
When people sin, they often do many things to hide it. Some will go to great lengths to hide it, so that nobody would know. Eventually, things start happening in our lives that make us keenly aware of the impact of sin. This passage speaks of several things that can severely impact our lives. It says 'when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.' Does this sound like what someone would want to have happen? People go to great extremes (or at least try to, through exercise, diet, rest, etc) to get their bodies back in shape. Sin works against all of that. There is no relief to be found in hiding sin. Day and night - constantly, God's hand is heavy. Strength is sapped as in the heat of summer. This is not where anyone wants to be.
Sin is continually before us. My grandmother used to live a block away from a railroad track. When I was a child, I stayed in the front bedroom sometimes and the first few times that a train came by, it woke me up. However, it was not continual and I grew used to it - it may actually have become a source of constance and comfort. When I've traveled to Gatlinburg with my family as a child, I remember staying in cottages alongside a stream that flowed over rocks, day and night. That was a sound that was continual. We grow accustomed to the sounds that we hear often, but the continual sound of unconfessed sin becomes more and more like a tornado siren that is outside of your house that never goes off. One of the higher level managers in my company has a disease that just began in earnest several months ago. One day, he started to hear a ringing in his ears. He went to all types of specialists and had many MRIs and other procedures done to determine what the problem was. They did figure it out, but there is nothing that can be done - it is coming from within his brain. I talked to him once about how it and he said that he had researched it and found that many people that had this disease strongly considered suicide. Now, I'm not saying that any of that has to do with sin in his life, but it makes a good analogy for what sin can do to us. We can live for a while without feeling the impact, but eventually it bears down upon us.
Then - then, after the consequences of sin started to hit. The writer of the Psalm acknowledged sin to God - but God did nothing for it. Sometimes, we think we can just say 'we're sorry' and then everything is okay. We are not to just say 'okay, you caught me'. That implies that we are sorry that we got caught, not that we are sorry for what we did. It does not imply acceptance of responsibility. A thief loves to plunder, but fears prison - he doesn't want to get caught. If he gets caught, he may pay a penalty, but then he often goes back to stealing. Many live their lives like this - trying not to get caught. And, then, when they are - saying they are sorry and expecting life to just go back to normal.
Forgiveness from God came when the offender fully confessed his sin to God. Rather than just believing that he had done wrong and admitted it, he began to agree that what he had done was sin against God. When we agree that we have grieved the Holy Spirit and we start to feel that grief, then we are at the point where we can find forgiveness. I truly believe that the reason we have problems ridding specific sin from our lives and finding forgiveness as God intended is that we don't feel the enormity of our sin. In James 4, it says that we are to be miserable, mourn and weep - at this point it is obvious that we are serious. The sapped strength and the bones wasting away seem to be very much in life with this sense of being miserable. I really don't believe it always has to come to being miserable to find forgiveness, unless we want to hold on to it and hide it - that is when it really starts to eat at us. Is there anything that you need to confess to God now?
The psalmist encourages every godly person to pray to God now, while he may be found. Sometimes, we wait until things start to unravel to seek God. Are you seeking God, even in the midst of blessing and prosperity? We can easily fall into a fall sense of confidence when we downplay God's role in our lives. Pray now.
When we establish that relationship with God, we can find comfort and protection when the storms come. This passage says that when the mighty waters rise, they will not reach the one who has sought God. God would protect from trouble and surround with songs of deliverance. We must be careful that we not take this to say that there would be no problems that come upon believers that seek God. That tends to put the important focus back on us, rather than where God would have us be focusing.
Believing that no problems will befall a believer is very dangerous. I still remember the days following September 11, 2001 and the terrorist attacks on the US. I recall one believer that held to this type of teaching saying that there were no believers who died in any of the instances. We know this to not be the case. There were plenty of Christians who died in the Twin Towers and on the airplanes that crashed. This passage is not a protection from all that tragedy that may come upon a person. There are still major issues that anyone who attempts to live life has to face. These may include natural tragedies, personal illnesses, wars, general unrest and so much more. God didn't promise that these things wouldn't happen, but that he would be with those who seek him.
God wants to help us in life. He has given us many guidelines and rules for living that have been shown to bring true life. He has also given us the freedom to choose what it is that we do - we are not mindless robots. Wonder why it takes us so long to realize that what we think we want to do is not what we need (or even really want). Those things lead to the sapped strength and wasted bones - when we follow our own lead.
God will instruct us and teach us in the way we should go. Some say that God hasn't shown them - or he isn't telling them what to do (job to take, school to attend, other specific decisions). However, God has shown us many things that most people ignore. People are looking for what they want to find and often ignoring what God has already said. God wants to counsel and watch over us. God wants to tell us what to do where we are now, and by doing that, it becomes clearer of what we are to do as the future unfolds.
We are not called to be like dumb animals that have no understanding. They must be controlled by the bit and bridle or they won't come to you. God has no desire to lead us around from place to place and activity to activity. God has given us what we need to live - are we paying attention, or are we waiting for the bit and bridle to actually act?
Those who choose to follow their own lead find many woes in life. When we truly seek the Lord, his unfailing love surrounds us. Let us truly rejoice in the Lord and be glad. Certainly, being glad and singing while trusting in the Lord is where we need to be, rather than in sin, with our strength being sapped and our bones wasting.
It's your choice. It's my choice. What is it that you really want in your life?
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