|
|
Dalton
Roberts |
|
|
A little pre-school girl kept telling her priest, “I talk with Jesus all the time.” One Sunday he decided to test the reality of her experience and said, “Next time you talk to Jesus ask Him what I confessed the last time I talked to Him.” The next Sunday he asked, “What did Jesus say when you asked him what I said in my last confession?” The little girl said, “Jesus said he didn’t remember.” The priest still remembered the sins he confessed but Jesus didn’t! He is true to His word to remember them against us no more. As far as the east is from the west is exactly where they are thereafter eternally located. When you can figure that out, go and dig them up! We often do exactly that: we go and dig them up. We won’t let God get rid of them. We cling to them. We say it is our deep sorrow but it is ego. We are secretly proud of our sins and how big they are. We want to hang on to those old stinking memories. The first thing we must always do when we need to forgive ourselves and move on is to see that it is ego and ego only that keeps hanging on to them. Why should God go to the trouble of forgiving them when we so tenaciously wallow around in them? It is really an affront to Jesus. He came down here and went through so much to open up a beautiful path to forgiveness and eternal blessing. When we won’t forgive ourselves, it is making His sacrifice and His teachings of no avail. Ego actually induces us to brag (in a solemn, sorrowful voice, of course) about how bad we have been. I remember a boy in college who “testified” in chapel about what a big old sinner he was. He said, “I woke up one morning, Dr. Mackey, and on the nightstand was an empty bottle of whisky and I knew I had guzzled every drop of it the night before. I looked on the pillow next to me and there was a whore (this is a true story, I am telling it exactly as he did).” See what an ego thrill he was getting over how much he could drink and his prowess with the women? He would blubber and cry, apparently unaware that his ego was in high gear. We never truly feel God has forgiven us until we forgive ourselves. We cannot truly forgive others until we forgive ourselves. Jesus gave the Law: “Love God and your neighbor as yourself.” I wrote a song on my gospel CD about a man like this: I was talking to a friend of mine one day About how my life had gone to pieces He said, “Why don’t you stop and pray And let the Lord put it all together again” I said, “Friend you don’t understand I’ve sunk too deep, and gone too far He said, “Jesus came to save sinners Now ain’t that what you are? He didn’t come down here for angels He left millions back at home He didn’t come down here for saints He left them singing around His throne He came down for men just like you Who think they’ve gone too far Jesus came to save sinners Now ain’t that what you are?” In the next verse I give the solution: I was so glad when I heard the good news I gave my heart and life to Jesus And just like the good buddy said He put together all the pieces My friend, I’m telling you You can’t sink too deep, You can go too far Jesus came to save sinners Now ain’t that what you are?” When He forgives you, do Him the honor of forgiving yourself.
|
