Atonement

October 20, 2010

God has been teaching me a lesson in guilt over the past few days.  Guilt can eat away at a person, and can cause you to act in ways of which you’re not necessarily proud.  In the Old Testament, this is how the people of God received atonement from guilt:

Day of Atonement

7 “ ‘On the tenth day of this seventh month hold a sacred assembly. You must deny yourselves and do no work.8 Present as an aroma pleasing to the Lord a burnt offering of one young bull, one ram and seven male lambs a year old, all without defect.9 With the bull prepare a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil; with the ram, two-tenths;10 and with each of the seven lambs, one-tenth.

11 Include one male goat as a sin offering, in addition to the sin offering for atonement and the regular burnt offering with its grain offering, and their drink offerings.” ~ Numbers 29: 7-11

Today, all we have to do is ask forgiveness.  It’s that easy!  Or is it?

The part I struggle with is forgiving myself.  Satan loves that.  I’ve been reading in a Bible study by Mark Batterson called Chase the Lion.  Ironically, this week is about facing fears.  The lesson deals with guilt and how Satan loves to use it against us.  It keeps us all wrapped up in past sin to the point that we don’t realize that God’s grace is enough.  It is stronger than any sin.  Psalm 147:3 says “[God] heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”

This post today is for myself as much as anyone else.  If you’re reading this and struggling with some past sin that you’d like to act as if never happened, do something about it today.  Admit your sin, ask God for forgiveness, then ask Him to take away your guilt and replace it with the redeeming power of His grace.  Be set free.

 

Posted by Megan
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One Response to “Atonement”

  1. meetingintheclouds Says:

    October 20, 2010 at 2:26 pm

    When I became a Christian 52 years ago, I struggled with the problem of guilt. At the time of my conversion I was about to become a Roman Catholic nun, so I believed that while sins were forgiven, they were never completely dealt with. We would still have to face purgatory until they were.

    What a blessing to discover that when God forgives, those sins are GONE. They are “as far as the east is from the west” and God says He will remember them no more.

    If I were to confess a previously confessed and forgiven sin to God, He would say “You must be mistaken my child. I have NO RECORD of that!”

    Since God has no record, what right do WE have to remember it or feel guilty about it?


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