ACCEPTING FORGIVENESS CAN BE DIFFICULT
I’m sure that many of you, just looking at this title, already have emotions running through your mind. Maybe accepting forgiveness from God and acceptance into His fellowship, is something you have struggled with personally, or you know one person, or probably more who just can’t seem to leave the past at His feet and walk away free.
A young man I had grown up with came through the doors of the church where I was pastor one night. There was a strong spirit of conviction in the service that night, and it was obvious that young man needed to pray, and in his heart really wanted to pray, but he just wouldn’t. After church, I stood in the foyer of the church and talked with him for some time. The whole premise of his side of the conversation, was that not even God could forgive him for the things he had done. No matter how many scriptures I gave him, or examples of others rescued from the pits of sin, he just could not make himself believe he could be forgiven. We prayed and he admitted that he felt the presence of God, and had felt drawn to that service that night by God, but he just could not believe that God would forgive him and make him His child.
That seems like a sad story of one man, but in reality, it is the story of multitudes.