This post is Day 2 in a series of studies about “Forgiveness”. I strongly suggest you begin with the introduction to this study, please click here to read it.

Feel free to comment below with your own thoughts about each verse and how you will be acting on each thought. Also, if you haven’t yet signed up to receive the notifications of new studies, you can do that today. (The form is at the bottom of the page).

Forgiveness – Day 2

God was trying from the beginning to teach mankind that wrong-doing has bad consequences. The word sin in our verse for today is the Hebrew word avon and means to distort or bend. How many of us distort the truth when we are retelling things that have happened to us?

Psalms 130:3-4

If You Lord, kept a record of sins, who could stand?
But with You there is forgiveness, so that we can with reverence serve You.

The Thought

Throughout the Old Testament we get the idea that sin causes a huge barrier between us and God. Only His forgiveness can break through that barrier. But we also find that sin causes a barrier between us and others.

The first mention of “sin” in the Bible comes very early on in the life of mankind. If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door, it desires to have you, but you must rule over it (Genesis 4:7).

In that verse, God was rebuking Cain and trying to teach him a lesson! Sadly, he didn’t learn that lesson and instead Cain became jealous and angry with his brother Abel and killed him! What an awful start to life on earth!

God was trying, right from the beginning, to teach mankind that wrong-doing has bad consequences. The word sin in our verse for today and also in the verse just quoted (Genesis 4:7) is the same Hebrew word “avon”. It means to distort or to bend. How many of us distort the truth when we are retelling things that have happened to us? How many of us exaggerate?

Action

Throughout your day today think about what you say, even when talking to yourself. Too often in our minds we convince ourselves that wrong things we have said or done were not too serious, and we know that God forgives. He does, but we need to recognise our need of forgiveness.

Challenge yourself to speak only the truth, and forgive yourself if you fail.

Read psalm 130 and rejoice that God who is alive, knows the truth about you and is always ready to forgive.

For a full list of online studies available on this site, please click here.

If there is a subject you would like to see on this site, please use the comment section below or drop us an email (there’s a link at the very top of the page). We can’t promise to cover them all, and our studies are usually prepared a month or two in advance, so please be patient.

For a full list of physical resources available through this site, please click here.