The Cost of Unforgiveness (Part Four)

Thursday – September 5, 2013

If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.  But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.  1 John 1:8-9 (NLT)

So the guy jumped out of the airplane before learning how to operate the parachute.  The man is frantically trying to figure out how to get it open.  Falling at 125 miles-per-hour, and just 3,000 feet from the ground, he meets another man going in the opposite direction – UP!  As they pass, the jumper asks:  “Do you know anything about parachutes?”  “No,” says the skyward-bound fellow, “do you know anything about nitro-glycerin?”

Human relationships can be like either of the men’s experience – explosive, or freefall!

Attempting to restore a relationship is a potentially-explosive activity.  Failing to prepare yourself by humbly confessing your own sins before God is like jumping out of an airplane before knowing how the parachute works.

Dealing with your own sins before even thinking about someone else’s sins, is so important that Jesus warned his followers to take precautions in this area.  He told them to forget hunting for a little splinter in a friend’s eye before removing the telephone pole from their own eye. ^{(Matthew 7)}   

The cost of unforgiveness is to remain without God’s forgiveness.  The price, or pre-requisite, to begin forgiving others is to be penitent – willing to humble myself before God so that I may be forgiven.  

Today

Strap on the parachute.

Take some time today to review the core of your relationship with Jesus.  See if your attitudes and actions are in line with the Christ-like life.

Remember the split-rail fence?  This confessing of our sins, so God can forgive us, and use us to bless others, is keeping the dead stuff away from the living.  Sin is dead – forgiveness is for the living.