Welcome my friends to season 3 of the Determined to Dance podcast. My prayer is that you’ll be encouraged to persevere daily in our chaotic world. Today’s episode, God’s Forgiveness, focuses on our failures, His forgiveness.

Show Notes: God’s Forgiveness

Sin. Not my favorite subject for a podcast. That’s probably why I named it God’s forgiveness. I’d much rather focus on His forgiveness than on the reason I need it.

We all sin.

It says in Romans 3:23-26: “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.” NLT

Made right by believing. What glorious news.

Every year, I choose a word or phrase to focus on. I pray and ask God to point it out and at some point, in November or December, the word or phrase shows up. This past December, I was reading a devotional, and all of a sudden the word honest seemed to leap from the page. I cringed. That’s my word for 2023? Some of you might say ‘No biggie,’ but it is for me. I don’t like to confront or upset people, so sometimes I might say a little less than is true to keep the peace. I can also exaggerate. I knew God was calling me to consider my words in a different light than ever before. It’s been difficult and I’ve had to backtrack a time or two on what I’ve said but I’m learning an important lesson. Telling a little white lie or omission is just as bad as someone who is deceitful and always lies. Scripture says that Satan is the father of all lies. Yipes. Let’s go back to my earlier statement. We all sin. Surely God is yelling at us for our mistakes, after all the blessings we’ve received from Him. But God…

Jeff Walling says, “No wonder we try to crawl away and hide when sin brings us down. If that’s the kind of response we imagine from God, we’d have to be crazy to call out to him for help. But the writer of Psalm 107 stands by his first verse: “The love of the Lord endures forever.” Even the willful sinner can dance in the dark if he will look to the Lord. And when he does, he will find grace, not disgust, in those eyes.”

The blood of Jesus is such a beautiful truth in scripture. The fact that He loved us as sinners, died on the cross and bore those sins, and covered them with his blood is truly miraculous. He loved us when we didn’t even acknowledge Him. Hallelujah.

Our part is to believe. And to keep seeking Him over and over to grow so close to Him that we don’t sin as often. We aren’t repeat offenders, not caring how we live because if we ask, He’ll forgive. We want to walk free from sin.

I John 1:7: “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

We believe, we are cleansed, and we walk by His side, crucifying our flesh every day. We all sin but we can all be forgiven.

Let’s pray: Father God, we’ve all sinned and fallen short but You chose to send Your son to take our place. We believe in You and Your Son and the Holy Spirit. Thank you for a gift that is beyond our minds to truly comprehend. We love You, staying close so we can always walk in Your ways. In Jesus’ name, we pray, amen.

God forgives when we ask.

Today’s featured authors, Deb, and Bruce Potts, wrote Love on Life Support, a second-chance romance. Chris and Amy’s on-again, off-again faith leaves them unprepared when the...