Be Forgiven
OPENING PRAYER:
Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you today because we desire to know you more and to do your will. Your Word is holy and powerful -- please open our hearts to your message and bend our willful spirits to your ways. You are ever-faithful and ever-present.
READ:
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” I John 1:9 (NIV)
REFLECT:
Reflect on this story of Jesus’ forgiveness and not condemning others in John 8:2-11.
“ At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
“No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
APPLY:
Complete forgiveness is available to you. Is there an area of sexual immorality that you need to confess to God? Take time in these moments to search your heart and mind. Commit I John 1:9 to memory. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Teach it to those whom you can influence. As believers, we need this verse on our hearts.
CLOSING PRAYER:
Thank you, Jesus, for offering complete forgiveness to us. We will come to you with our heartache and sin, and you will make us clean. Amen.
WORSHIP: