The joy of forgiveness

Think back to when you were a child. Do you ever remember doing something wrong and trying to hide it from your parents? As a kid you probably got yourself in all sorts of trouble.
Sometimes your parents knew what you had done and other times they had no clue! But that still didn’t keep you from worrying about it, carrying around guilt, and always thinking that at any moment your mom or your dad would confront you about it.
This desire to hide our wrongdoings is something we inherited from our first parents. Remember how Adam and Eve broke God’s law and the first thing they did was hide?
We often do the same thing today. We resist owning up to our mistakes and seeking forgiveness. Maybe in our minds we think we can hide our sins from God, but God sees and knows all, even deep into the recesses of our hearts.
King David, like us, could not hide his sins from God. David had an affair with Bathsheba and she became pregnant. So, he called her husband in from battle to be with his wife for a time so that everyone would assume the child was his. When Uriah slept on the steps of their house instead of within, David knew that his plan had not worked and so he had Uriah killed. David was an adulterer and a murderer.
In Psalm 32, David wrote, “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity.”
Being the sinner that David was, how could he write with such confidence and joy? Because his sins were forgiven.
David found out that trying to hide your sins causes nothing but pain and anguish. He wrote, “For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.” By not acknowledging his sin before the Lord, David was trying to carry around the burden of guilt himself. He finally gave up and repented.
David continues, “I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.’” David found the joy of forgiveness, even for the terrible sins he committed.
David could have never made up for what he did, and hiding his sins from God was impossible, so all he could do was fall to his knees in humility and confess his sins before God.
This joy found in forgiveness is what God wants for you, too. In verse 6 David wrote, “Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found.”
The day to turn from your sins, seek forgiveness, and lean upon God is now! And God can be only found in Christ Jesus whose sacrifice on the cross washed away your sins.
This Lent, return to the Lord.