newfound forgiveness

Feelings are awesome. I am so incredibly thankful and blessed with the ability to feel things. Imagine a life without feelings and emotions, I feel like it would be so dark and meaningless.

I want you to think about the feeling you had when you first realized that God has forgiven you for all of you sins. From my experience and from hearing about most other people's, it's a feeling like no other. There simply isn't anything to compare it to.

Do you still have that feeling or do you get complacent? Have you gotten into such a habit of being forgiven that you don't feel the same joy as you did at first?

I believe that's pretty common. It's a day to day think ya know? Sinning. We aren't perfect so we are going to sin. Since Christ Jesus died for ALL of our sins, we continue to be forgiven.

What if we had that feeling of newfound forgiveness every time we asked for forgiveness? Think about how much your faith and your life would change because of having that feeling.

That newfound forgiveness feeling is a feeling that we should be addicted to because nothing compares to it.

I want to make sure I make this point clear. I am not saying it's okay to continue to intentionally sin over and over again because we are forgiven. That's not the point of this message. The point of this message is to not forget that feeling and for you to let that feeling motivate you and strengthen your relationship with Christ.

Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not respond, I will come to you and remove your lamp stand from its place. (Revelation 2:4-5)

When we lose sight of the seriousness of sin, we begin to lose the thrill of our forgiveness. When we first became believers and began our walk with Christ we may have had enthusiasm without knowledge. Do you now have knowledge without enthusiasm? Both are necessary if we are to keep love for God intense and untarnished.