Today’s readings: Click on today’s date at http://www.usccb.org/bible/
Safe at last, thank God almighty we’re safe at last
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Wednesday of the First Week of Lent
Psalm 51:19
A broken, humbled heart, O Lord, you will not spurn.
We’re told over and over that there is no end to God’s forgiveness. But it’s so difficult to believe because it seems there is always an end to our forgiveness for each other.
God’s different.
For one thing, no one made God. Jesus is “begotten, not made.” Genesis’ opening words are, “In the beginning, God …” Ex nihilo, out of nothing. God has never not existed. That is what we say and how we understand what we think we know about God. God the unknowable.
Mostly, we’re limited in our own forgivingness because it’s so hard to accept our own forgiveness from God. David was a man “after God’s heart” because he DID accept God’s forgiveness. The waterfall of forgiveness God has put in place never stops pouring down upon the place beneath, and all we need to do is move under it. Poured down, shaken together.
Jonah was angry with God for forgiving the awful sinners of Nineveh. Jonah thought God’s forgiveness was a scarce commodity. He thought God withheld it from many and bestowed it on just a few. He thought he was one of those few.
And so we poke a little fun at Jonah. And at ourselves, because we run the same course far too often. We’re the ones God forgives. Not those other guys.
But we don’t have to jockey for position under the waterfall. It will not stop flowing. God isn’t going anywhere. All of us can be washed clean.
Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence. And restore the joy of my salvation.
http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archived_devotions.php?article_id=1339
