Forgiveness

How often should I pray for forgiveness?

In the Lord’s Prayer, we ask God to forgive us our sins, as we forgive others. At the beginning of holy communion service, we confess our sins and are assured of forgiveness. Toward the end of the Apostle’s Creed, we acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

Quite often over the course of the day, I mentally or quietly ask God to forgive me. Sometimes for small things, sometimes not so small.

When I’m at work, and I feel that I’ve snapped at a colleague, I apologise to them, but also apologise to God.

One day I was walking with my mother, and there was a woman sat on the floor outside a shop, shouting into a mobile phone, and seemed to be upset. We walked a different way to avoid her. Would you have done the same? In this day and age, we worry that we will be told, in no uncertain terms, to mind our own business. A person could be nasty, or even violent. Worse case scenario of course, but my mother is elderly and disabled. And I don’t want her to be hurt.

But.

I could have shouted over to the person – ‘are you ok?’, ‘do you need help?’ But I didn’t.

Minutes later, as we got home, I sat and prayed for forgiveness. I felt terribly guilty, and even though I know that God will forgive me, but I still felt terrible. I was reminded of the story of the Good Samaritan. I was not that person. I was the one who walked on by.

If God was writing my school report it would read ‘could do better’. And I will.

I pray for forgiveness every day. No matter how small the reason, I am sorry, I repent, and I recieve God’s forgiveness, and I pray for the courage to do better each day.

Words for today.

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” Ephesians 4:32

“The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him.” Daniel 9:9