Devotional 6-1-12

Lectionary Reading: Isaiah6:1-8

I, even I, am he who blots your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more. Isaiah 43:25

Irretrievably Gone

High on a sun-drenched ledge, you lean back and feel the breeze softly cooling your skin. With a deep contented breath of mountain air, you survey the lovely over-the-treetops view.

A small stone, just the right size for throwing, sits just within arm's reach. You lazily pick it up and watch transfixed, as your fist sends it sailing over the edge, down, down, to disappear far below. You do not see it reach the ground.

Think about God's forgiveness and how he assures us that he separates us far from our sinful deeds once we have confessed them, "As far as the east is from the west"----so far we cannot imagine retrieving them, any more than you can imagine retrieving that disappearing stone you just cast off the mountain.

The concept of forgiveness is all about casting off. In the original language, the idea of yielding up and casting off is central.

Your past sins need never become your identity. You are what you become from this moment forward. Satan, the Accuser, will try to tell you that your sins are not really gone; that their shadow will always hang over you. His lies can be very convincing, because we feel bad about the wrong things we have done and find it hard, sometimes, to believe God could really cast them away so far that they are forgotten! But don't allow doubts and self-destructive suggestions to invade your mind. If God says you are truly forgiven, then you are.

Remind yourself of the permanence of his forgiveness. In your mind's eye, return to that cliff whenever you are tempted to hold on to past sins. Pick up a stone, wind up, and hurl it as far as you can throw it into the thick, distant treetops. Is there any way you could find it after that? Why would you ever want to try?

Dear Lord, how wonderful it feels to know I am forgiven.

Mountain Prayers: A Vacation for Your Soul
Honor Books 2007

Kay Lewis