This post is Day 29 in a series of studies about “Gifts & Giving”. 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).

Gifts & Giving – Day 29

So often when Jesus was ministering to a sick person or an invalid, His words of healing included Your sins are forgiven. This suggests that sin causes sickness and invalidity. Living in that place of less sin, and knowing we are forgiven can have a powerful effect on our health.

Luke 23:34

Father forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.

The Thought

This very well known verse indicates one of the greatest gifts ever given: God’s forgiveness. It is something many of us do not fully understand. I think we don’t understand forgiveness because we don’t understand the depth of our sins.

If we consider that every critical word, everything not expressed in love, every negative thought about ourselves or others is contrary to God’s Word and Jesus’s life, then most of us do not live up to Jesus’ hopes for us. We are failing.

But these words in today’s verse apply to each one of us. We do not realise what we are doing, or even how our thinking can be a sin, but as Jesus from His cross forgave His murderers, who sat below drawing lots for His robe, at that same moment He forgave every sin ever committed. That includes yours and mine. As Christians it is up to us to live in that place of forgiveness, to recognise that every minute of every day we are forgiven. We must recognise too that we have the job, as believers, to share with others all that that means.

So often when Jesus was ministering to a sick person or an invalid, His words of healing included “Your sins are forgiven”. This suggests that sin causes sickness and invalidity. Living in that place of less sin, and knowing we are forgiven can have a powerful effect on our health.

Action

Pray today for the Lord to show you any of your attitudes that are not in line with Him. Confess those things and know that you are forgiven.

Ask for open eyes to see where others need to hear that Jesus still forgives today.

Thank Him for His gift of forgiveness and for all He did for you at the cross.