Fear No Fear

“In Him we have redemption through His blood and the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7, MEV). ‘I fasted’, ‘I prayed’, or ‘I did penance’ are all things I’ve heard from people right before I hear ‘but I don’t feel forgiven’. And that’s the two-fold problem. One, they’re relying on feelings. Feelings aren’t reality. They’re information. You can feel like you’re freezing to death on a very cold day. You’re not. You’re just really cold. Put on proper clothing and you will stop feeling cold, even though the environment hasn’t changed. Feelings are information that we can pay attention to (like the cold) or refuse to pay attention to (like irritation or frustration so we won’t become angry). If you are relying on a feeling, you could end up barking up a VERY wrong tree. The second thing is ‘I’. Your efforts won’t get you forgiven. Your efforts can deal with the consequences of something. You can pay off the debt, reconcile by restitution, etc. But the forgiveness? You can’t MAKE that happen. Take fasting. That’s for YOUR flesh, YOUR benefit. It does NOTHING for God. Not a thing. He forgives because He is merciful. He forgives because He loves us. And He forgives when we accept payment for that sin. Implicit in that payment is our repentance. Forgiveness by Grace isn’t a get out of jail free card. We need to be repentant. We’re turning from sin, walking away from sin, and refusing to participate in sin. Not in our thoughts, not in our deeds, and not in our words. We need the mindset that sin disgusts us. That those things we did? We’d never WANT to do them. That mindset is only possible in Jesus and because of what He did for us. By Grace. Because He loves us. Because He’s merciful. If you’re trying to earn forgiveness, forget it. You can’t. If you want to ‘feel’ forgiven? Trust in Jesus. Trust in the repentance you’re walking through (or did walk through). Trust Him. It’s the only way we get the feeling. By Grace through Trust in Jesus.