My name is Scott and I am a sinner.  Now, if you are a Christian, this statement will come as no surprise to you.  Many of us learned that verse as a little child in Romans 3:23; “For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God.” So, we come to God and He saves us and we never sin again!  Right?  Wait!  What?  That isn’t right?  We do not stop sinning when we get saved?

Of course, we do not!  No one on this earth is perfect and I can promise that I might just be the most un-perfect of all of them!  So, why do Christians sin?  Good question but I think it boils down to a couple of things.  We take our eyes of Jesus and we allow worldly and secular influences into our lives.  Of course, that old sinful nature does not help either!

Now, while God does not weigh sins in terms of magnitude (to God; sin is sin) we realize that often when we sin as a Christian we are immediately brought under conviction and confess it right after we do it.  However, that is not always the case.  There have been times in my life, one quite recent, when I allowed sin to creep into my life and even control my life for a longer period of time.  Each one of those times, God did something to jolt me out of what I was doing and each of those times I looked back in utter amazement that I could have done the things that I did.  The devil can use some pretty warped logic on a back-slidden Christian!

The bad part about sin is that someone always gets hurt.  My sins were no different.  I hurt many people that I cared deeply for.  I am thankful for a loving, Christian family who were quick to forgive and forget and say “let’s move on and we are here for you.”  I am deeply regretful for those people that I hurt who likely will never forgive me or trust me again and especially to those whom I never got to tell “I’m sorry.”  Mostly, I am thankful that God was waiting for me when I was ready to confess those sins.  He forgave and forgot them immediately and He still loves me and I believe that He still has a plan for my life and will continue to use me.

I have learned a few things in these two situations about forgiveness.  Parents will almost always forgive you.  Brothers and sisters will too!  Friends and other people are not always so quick to forgive but they are often the ones most hurt by your actions so that is understandable.  However, the hardest person to get forgiveness from is yourself!  Even though God has forgiven and forgotten and friends and family may do the same, it is very difficult to forgive yourself for the hurt and pain you caused other people.  The other thing I have learned is that God ALWAYS forgives.

I am reminded of a song written by Mike Jacobs and sung by the Jacobs Brothers in the 1970’s or early 1980’s.  This song was a great comfort to me recently and does a pretty good job of describing the place where I was.  The name of the song is “Forgiven” and from my memory here are the words:

Verse 1
I’ve wandered so far away from You, Lord
Your Spirit still calls me
But my heart is cold
The things that I love
Are slipping away
Oh Lord, please don’t come today

Verse 2
So many dear people I know need You so
Yet, my heart can’t witness
Or make Your love known
What will I say
When I stand at Your throne
Oh Lord, I feel so alone

Chorus
Lord, let me hide my shame
Lord, help me smile again
Fill me love
Cleanse all my sin
And let me be
Forgiven

This song, better than any other I have ever heard, sums up the plea of the Christian who has slipped and fallen away from God.  What I love is that the song is a prayer set to music and the prayer, if you pray it and mean it, is for God’s forgiveness.  I am so thankful that we serve a God of second and third and fifth and tenth chances! 

So friend, if you are dealing with a sin in your life, let me encourage you to confess it to God!  It does not matter what it is, He will forgive you!  Unfortunately, you may need to experience some pain and heartache here on earth as you work your way through the sin and the consequences it has caused but I encourage you to talk to your pastor or a good Christian Counselor who can help you work through it.  If your sin involves some type of addiction there are many great places that can assist you in overcoming and recovering from that addiction.  God wants you to have victory over the sin.  You just have to be willing to let Him give you the victory and to put forth the effort to achieve the victory!  It is hard!  It is emotionally painful!  It can be quite humiliating but it is also so worth it!  Hey, look at this way; you are not on the journey alone.  Others are going through or have gone through the same thing!

I want to leave you with two final thoughts. First, is another very familiar scripture verse in 1 John 1:9; “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Yes, that means you and me and every other sinner in the world!  My final thought on this is the title of an old Cathedrals classic song written by Bill and Gloria Gaither … remember we are all “just an old sinner, saved by grace!”