Do you know who’s the hardest person to forgive? Do you know who gets their past thrown in their face day after day? Do you know who is willing to grant mercy to others but can’t seem to give grace to themselves? Answer for most Christians: SELF.
What is wrong with us? God says He forgives us when we repent. He even says He will remember our sins no more. Why can’t we do the same?
The apostle Paul did a lot of good things. He had really good theology flowing from his pen via inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He loved his enemies. He suffered for the cause of Christ. He only cared about the gospel being spread to all creation. But the best thing Paul did was forgive himself. He was guilty of killing Christians – you can’t get any worse than that. But when Paul turned his life over to Jesus that old life was dead and gone. In Galatians 2:20 he writes, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me”. Paul knew grace and lived by grace and faith. He came to know God’s love is steadfast from everlasting to everlasting – love that is hard to figure, understand, and grasp BUT once we know His love is like no other we can tell our heart to beat again.
Read I Timothy 1:12-17. Then listen to a much-needed song for us entitled: Tell Your Heart to Beat Again by Phillips, Dean & Craig.
1 Timothy 1:12-17
I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was previously a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost sinner Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.