Forgiveness

David Jeremiah points out that in November 2002, "Detroit Schools Chief Executive Kenneth Burnley showed up at Southeastern High School with an announcement. Showing the students $100, he read a letter from an anonymous graduate of Southeastern's class of 1947. The man had sent the money as reimbursement for stealing some Hershey bars from the lunchroom 55 years ago. The man wrote, 'I am a retired professional who has been highly respected in my life. I have certainly been guilty of much greater offenses over the years, but that basic breach of trust has remained in the back of my mind.'

"We all have regrets, we often need to apologize to others, and we all need pardon. But we must remember that when God forgives, He forgives wholly. Psalm 130 says: 'If you, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared' (vv. 3-4).

"'I know God has forgiven me,' someone says, 'yet I can't seem to forgive myself.' But when we accept the forgiveness of Almighty God, He does away with all the guilt. It vanishes, as far as the east is from the west. He washes us clean. If we still struggle with guilt, we need to revisit the forgiveness of Him who promised to wash us whiter than snow."

(from Turning Point Daily Devotional, 3/19/03)