Theme for this week: “Forgiveness”
January 13, 2022 (Thursday)
The blogs this week began by giving thanks to God for the forgiveness of our sins in Christ. Then we wrote about giving and receiving forgiveness involving other people. “Forgiving God” probably seems like a strange subject to many of you, but many people feel that God has not been fair with them and, in their honest moments have confessed that they are “mad at God.” So I will write about that today. “Forgiving God” sounds blasphemous, so I choose to entitle the blog, “Reconciliation with God.”
This discussion begins with an examination of the subject, “The Will of God.” Sincere Christians are at a loss to explain why tragedy has entered their lives, because it seems to them that God has forgotten them and is not caring for them. This creates a real breach in our relationship with God, and we need to deal with it. Anything that disrupts our fellowship with God needs attention. Above all the relationships that we have in life is our relationship with God. Humans were created for the purpose of God having fellowship with them, and they with Him. But perhaps now something has happened that has caused us to feel that God has forsaken us. Our fellowship with Him is broken, and we need to be reconciled to Him.
We need the Lord more than He needs us, and we are out of our league when we decide to forsake God. I’m reminded of an old sermon about the prodigal son, in which the preacher begins his sermon with the words, “Young man, young man, your arm’s too short to box with God.”
If we have reached a point in our lives where we think God’s Will is hurting us, then perhaps we don’t understand what a big job it is to oversee the universe. God is sovereign. He is in control of His world, and of us, if we sincerely pray, “Thy will be done.” But I think that Jesus’ story about the prodigal son is a story about us and our own rebellion against our Heavenly Father. When the son decided to give up his resentment and humbly ask his father for forgiveness and a second chance, he discovered that his father had loved him all the time. The separation had been his own doing, but his father looked for him to return every day because He loved him.
If we feel that we have the right to reject God, we need to think again. God loves us. We may not understand His will and purpose for our lives, but we can accept His will and love Him with all our heart. We will never have peace until we do. “Be reconciled to God” is not only our original call to be saved, but it is the Holy Spirit’s work within each of us if we stray from His side.
Reconciliation with others is vital to our spiritual health, but reconciliation with God is what we need most of all if our fellowship with Him has been broken.
“Thy will be done” is more than a nice prayer; it is a confession that we need the Lord and a promise to love and obey Him.
I Surrender All
Words, Judson W. Van DeVenter
Music, Winfield S. Weeden
1896
All to Jesus I surrender,
All to Him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust Him,
In His presence daily live.
Refrain:
I surrender all,
I surrender all;
All to Thee, my blessed Savior,
I surrender all.
All to Jesus I surrender,
Humbly at His feet I bow;
Worldly pleasures all forsaken,
Take me, Jesus, take me now.
Refrain
All to Jesus I surrender,
Make me, Savior, wholly Thine;
Let me feel the Holy Spirit,
Truly know that Thou art mine.
Refrain
All to Jesus I surrender,
Lord, I give myself to Thee;
Fill me with Thy love and power,
Let Thy blessing fall on me.
Refrain
All to Jesus I surrender,
Now I feel the sacred flame;
Oh, the joy of full salvation!
Glory, glory, to His Name!
Refrain