Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. Hebrews 13:15

Prior to knowing Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior, as I have mentioned in other devos, I had given up hope for myself. When we did find a church for our children to go to (in hopes that they would be forgiven and go to heaven, even though I thought was to bad and couldn’t) there were sermons that would bring me to tears. Sermons that spoke of brokenness and God’s Healing, a person in need whose need God met or even a sinful life that had been forgiven. I think part of what made me so emotional was that I desired all of those things from God, but felt that (because of my past) I could never receive them. Another thing that I believe caused such great emotion was, although I didn’t realize it, I was experiencing the presence of God and the softening of my heart by the Holy Spirit. God was drawing me into a relationship with Himself and I didn’t even know it.

Then I met Jesus, I repented of my sins and asked Him to be Lord of my life and He bent down, lifted the weight of my sin and shame from my shoulders and began to show me a love that I had never known before. He said over me ““Your sins are forgiven.”. Wow! What a love story that has been. Thank you Lord.

I am always reminded of my own story by the beautiful picture of repentance and forgiveness found in. Luke 7:36-50

36 When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table 37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume.  38 As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.” 40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said. 41 “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.

44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.  45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet.  46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.” 48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

What a powerful picture of repentance and forgiveness.

But, I think sometimes we may feel as though (unlike the woman in these verses) we weren’t that sinful. When Jesus is trying to help Simon to understand why this woman is so grateful, he tells him the parable of the two men who were in debt. The parable says that one of the men owed 50 danarii and the other 500 and when they are both forgiven, the one that owed more was more thankful and loved more because of the magnitude of the debt that was forgiven Him. I think that we sometimes fail to recognize the magnitude of the debt forgiven us. We are sometimes arrogant and think well I am not as sinful as that person over there so that is why they are so “religious” or are always trying to do things for God.

There is not a single person, who has experienced the forgiveness of the Lord, who shouldn’t have the same gratitude and love for Christ as this sinful woman of the Bible.

The difference between the parable and us is that one single unrepented sin would be enough to keep us out of Heaven. The magnitude of our debt is that the punishment for sin (whether 50 or 500) is death….eternal death. If we know Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, we should all have flowing tears of gratitude and love. Because He endured all that He did on the cross, paying the penalty for our sin, so that we wouldn’t have to suffer and pay the penalty for it for eternity, we should be constantly moved to tears and gratitude.

We can’t pay Him back and, although He is worthy, we can’t spend our whole lives on our knees praising and thanking Him either. But, what we can do is worship Him, praise Him, thank Him, pray to Him, serve Him and point others to Him. He desires that none should perish (The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 2 Peter 3:9) and asks that we would tell them about Him (And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Mark 16:15). Don’t we have a story of being moved to tears of gratitude and love, to share with them?

I pray that today we would be filled with such tremendous gratitude for what He has done for us and rescued us from that we too would be flowing tears of gratitude and love. I pray that we would commit ourselves, again, to worshiping, praising, thanking, serving, and glorifying Him and that we would tell those around us about the great things that He has done, both for us and for them.

If you do not know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and savior and, perhaps you even think (like I did) that you are too bad to be forgiven, you desire a relationship with Him, I pray that you would go to our Life Preserver page (https://Forgiven-N-Loved.com/Life-preserver) and pray the prayer that is outlined there. Once you have prayed that prayer, please reach out to me at admin@Forgiven-N-Loved.com and let me know, I’d love to be in prayer for you.

Please pray…Jesus is waiting, to say those same precious words He said over me and the sinful woman in our verses….”“Your sins are forgiven.”.

Luv Ya!