Archives for October 2015

  Perhaps this question seems ridiculous to you, or even offensive. Holiness is an attribute of God, a part of who He is, so by virtue of who God is He is incapable of sin.  If God is incapable of sin why would we need to forgive Him?

Welcome to FREEDOM FRIDAY – A devotional, emotional, spiritual and sometimes hysterical series that I will be sharing on occasional Fridays, in addition to my regular Old Things New posts. Why?  Because though once bound in chains Christ has set me free –  FREE to live, to love, to dance, to sing, to be who God created me to be!

 The past two Freedom Friday posts have been  all about forgiveness, Forgiving Yourself and Forgiving Others (and they are really good so you might want to go back and read them!).  At the end of my post on forgiving others I led you through a prayer of forgiveness and afterwards asked the question, “Was God’s name on your list of those to forgive?”  That question leads to today’s post.

We all have hopes and dreams don’t we?  We also all experience disappointments when our hopes and dreams aren’t fulfilled, leading us to question God.

 “Why have you allowed this tragedy to come into my life?”

“Why did you allow my marriage to be broken apart by another person?”

“Why must I live with this constant pain?”

“Why did you allow the lie to be believed that turned my best friend against me?”

“Why have you allowed evil people to succeed when I try to do good and only see failure?”

“Why did you take my child’s life?”

“Why can’t I be beautiful, thin, rich, popular . . . ?”

“Why did you allow that person steal my innocence when I was just a child?”

“Why don’t you answer my prayers?”

The Psalms are filled with laments toward God!

There have been times in my life where I’ve prayed with all my heart to escape a hard situation and no escape came, or when I prayed for something that I thought was good and was met with only obstacles, or when I prayed for God to give me an answer and all I heard was silence.  At times in my life I’ve been angry and wrestled with God over things that I felt weren’t “fair.”  I’ve also been through times of great hurt where I felt abandoned and questioned God’s love for me.

Many of my unfulfilled expectations were things I felt God should have done for me or that He should have prevented from happening to me, (you can read a whole post about expectations HERE) but God never sets out to hurt us or cause us harm.  He is perfect in all His ways (Psalm 18:30).  He can always be trusted to do what’s best for those who follow Him (Rom. 8:28) even when it seems to us to be all wrong!

When I hold a resentment against God it hurts me! Share on X

 Bitterness and unforgiveness hold me in bondage.  They steal my joy and keep me from moving forward in all of the fullness that God has for me.

So technically NO, God does not need our forgiveness.  He is sinless and He never does anything to harm us.  In truth, when we are angry with God we’ve placed our own expectations on Him rather than letting God be God and:

If I'm not letting God BE God I'm not really trusting Him. Share on X

So maybe what’s really needed is for us to ask Him to forgive us for our attitudes of resentment toward Him and for placing our human expectations on the one who knows it all (Job 37:15-16; Dan. 2:22)!

In Job 40:8 (The Voice), after Job has done much questioning of God, God answers, “Would you go so far as to question my judgment?  Would you imagine Me guilty merely in order to justify yourself?”

It is okay to be authentic and honest with God about how we feel.  He understands our disappointments. To really grasp God’s sovereignty I had to come to a point in my life where I was stricken with fear over a situation that I had no control over.  All I could do was choose to really believe that God was in control.  It is such a release to trust Him and believe that He has my best interests at heart instead of trying to manipulate things to my own advantage.

So again, no, God doesn’t need your forgiveness.  He loves you and desires a full and unhindered relationship with you. Letting go of bitterness, accepting God’s perfect plan for your life, and allowing His peace to flow into those places where you’ve once held resentment will set you free!

PRAYER:  Papa God, please reveal those areas of my life where I’ve held resentment or anger against my circumstances, but really against You.  I know that as your child you only desire what is good for me but sometimes Your best doesn’t make sense to me.  I know that you are good and trustworthy, even when life is falling apart.  You are righteous in all your ways.  I’m sorry for the resentments I’ve held against you and though YOU don’t need forgiveness I forgive you for not doing it my way!  I may even be a little bit relieved that you didn’t do it my way!  Today I am letting go of the wrong thinking I’ve embraced and trusting You with every area of my life.  In the mighty name of Jesus, Amen.

God’s best to you my dear readers,

All photographs taken at Symmes Chapel, AKA “Pretty Place”, in Cleveland, South Carolina.

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