The Power of Release
Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity
and passing over transgression
for the remnant of his inheritance?
He does not retain his anger forever,
because he delights in steadfast love.
He will again have compassion on us;
he will tread our iniquities underfoot.
You will cast all our sins
into the depths of the sea. (Micah 7:18-19)
How can it be? In all my sinfulness, how can He delight to show me mercy? I understand that God’s character IS mercy…it is part of His very nature. Yet, how can He delight in forgiving my ugliness? It is far too great for me to comprehend.
He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:13-14).
He rescued us – pulled us out of a pit of dark and despairing. We, the sinful beings – we, the very ones who despised His name as He hung on that tree willingly, to save our wretched souls. We can love because He loved us first. We can sing because He put the joy within our heart. We exist because He has chosen it to be. We who are nothing came into being and live and breathe because God willed it so. He, in His GREAT MERCY AND GRACE…not only did He forgive my sin, but he HURLED it into the depths of the sea! Psalm 103:12 declares it: as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. He treads my sin underfoot!
He has removed our sin! It is no more! Gone! Never to stare us in the face again. Never to be relived or brought up or discussed or judged. Removed completely! He says in Hebrews 10:17: He will remember our sins and their lawless deeds no more. He doesn’t even REMEMBER them! They are no longer a part of His mind at all.
As these verses saturate my heart…as I sit in perfect adoration towards my LOVING Father, basking in His goodness and pouring out my thankfulness…another verse comes to mind and I am halted mid-praise. Bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive (Colossians 3:13).
Forgive as the Lord forgave me? I catch my breath. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you (Ephesians 4:32).
Oh. The words sink in. I pause. Forgive each other, as GOD FORGAVE ME. This is it. This is what it means to “die to ourselves.” This is what God has called us to. For when He came to dwell in me – as soon as He took up space within my soul – my life became Galatians 2:20. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. My very existence is to bring HIM glory! Since He lives within me, how I respond is no longer a right I get to decide. I MUST respond like Jesus. Every. Single. Time. And that means forgiving like He forgives – no matter the grievance. Even if that means I must forgive myself.
But how is this possible when the hurt is more than I can bear? How do I flesh this out in real life, when in real life, my offender might not bend? Real life is messy. Yet, here we are in the middle of the real, and this is the space where God has called us to live. The beautiful part is that in our frailty of being human, God extends all grace. He understands our weakness; that is why His mercies are new every morning. I must forgive, and it may very likely be a daily surrender. Every time the offense comes to mind, every time the hurt wells up, I must choose to “drop all charges” and refuse to take up stance as “judge and jury”. Every time the situation rises up in my memory bank, I must lay it down all over again. God is so gracious with me, so I MUST extend that same grace to others. He knows we cannot do this on our own. He knows we MUST lean into HIM in order to forgive. Our flesh is weak, but in our weakness HIS strength is made perfect. This is how we forgive as God has forgiven us. This is how we hurl the sin into the depths of the sea. This is what it looks like to remember no more. In our human flesh, it may be a process instead of a one-time event.
I close my eyes, falling on my knees.
“Help me, dear Jesus, help me embrace forgiveness as You embraced the cross. Help me die to myself again today. I lay the shattered pieces before You, and ask You to make them whole enough to be the broken and poured out body of Christ for this world You so beautifully created. I am nothing apart from You. I surrender my rights and my will…my hopes and my dreams…my pride and my name. Fill me until nothing remains but YOU ALONE. Fill me with YOUR compassion and YOUR love and YOUR kindness and YOUR grace. Usher in YOUR breath and YOUR Spirit and YOUR life. Remake this jumble of humanity that is me into a holy vessel, useful to You for every good work.”
Today’s Challenge: Stop and seek the Lord this day. Ask Him to reveal anyone in your life whom you have not completely forgiven as He has forgiven you. Then, as He brings names and faces to your mind, surrender the hurt, the offense, the memory, and forgive that person completely – even if it is yourself!
Bitterness and unforgiveness are prisons that hold the captor, not the captive, bound. We’re going to unbind ourselves from these long-held resentments once and for all today. Remember the visual from Phase Two where we placed particular worries into the capable and loving hands of our God? Let’s do that here as well. Write out the offense – write down the name of the ones who have hurt you. Fold that paper up. Imagine that you are handing that wrongdoing to your heavenly Father. Ask God to help you get up and walk forward in that forgiveness this moment. It’s now in His hands and you no longer have access. When the pain or the memory rises up without warning, remember that God has control of it – it is no longer yours to recall.
Forty Days of Faithful 