I, the LORD, invite you to come and talk it over. Your sins are scarlet red, but they will be whiter than snow or wool – Isaiah 1:18

Maybe you woke up this morning and you can’t believe what you did the night before. Or maybe you feel that your life has become a constant stream of mistakes and bad choices, you feel so ashamed and you’re full of regrets and guilt.

The issue isn’t so much about our sins that we commit – “All have sinned,” the Bible says – Romans 3:23. The issue is, do we seek forgiveness from God, or do we even realize that we can come to Him for forgiveness? There is no sin or sins that are so terrible that we can’t come to God for forgiveness. Even if we commit the same sin over and over and ask forgiveness over and over God is still ready to forgive. The door to forgiveness is wide open, Jesus has seen to that – Matthew 26:28

Maybe the thing that stops you from coming to God for forgiveness is guilt.

The guilt that follows our sins can last for days, months or even years, maybe even a life time. This is the “worldly sorrow” that the bible talks about, this is a condemning, depressive guilt that causes a kind of deadness in us – 2 Corinthians 7:10. This worldly sorrow causes all those terribly guilty feelings but, maybe the worst part is worldly sorrow can’t help us to change, it just condemns us and leaves us there. And instead of wanting to come to God for forgiveness, we want to run and hide from Him – Genesis  3:8-9

But, there is another type of sorrow the Bible calls “Godly sorrow” and it says that Godly sorrow “brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret“.  – 2 Corinthians 7:10. This means that when we come to God for forgiveness we will receive forgiveness, God is faithful and just to forgive – 1 John 1:9

It also means there is a change in us, it’s Gods kindness towards us that lead us to repentance – Romans 2:4. This repentance cause us to change our whole outlook, we are able to turn from the sins and the lifestyle that had trapped us to the way of life God intended. This is Gods salvation, this is what Jesus called being “born again”. 

This is what some call the “exchanged life”  – 2 Corinthians 5:21. Christ takes our broken, sinful life and all the punishment that goes with it and exchanges it for a heavenly life. All the old life disappears, the sins, the brokenness, all the guilt is left behind – 2 Corinthians 5:17

All this freedom comes from God, won’t you come to Him and talk it over?

CLF