Posted on 03/22/2023 4:29:58 AM PDT by metmom
After all his weeping and crying out to the Lord, David ended up declaring, “But there is forgiveness with you, that you may be feared” (Psalm 130:4, NKJV).
The Holy Spirit began to flood his soul with memories of God’s mercies, and suddenly David recalled all he had learned through the years about the Father’s loving, forgiving nature. “But you are God, ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in kindness, and did not forsake them” (Nehemiah 9:17).
Soon David was rejoicing, reminding himself, “For you, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon you” (Psalm 86:5). “Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases” (Psalm 103:3).
Here is one of the foundational promises of the New Covenant. Jeremiah declares, “I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more” (see Jeremiah 31:34). Paul adds in the New Testament that he has made us “alive together with him, having forgiven all your trespasses” (Colossians 2:13).
God has promised us his forgiveness for every sin! He pours out his love upon us, and we have, through redemption, hope for this life and eternal life to come. As our Father, it is in his very nature to forgive. We are not left out in the cold; we are drawn into the shelter and safety of God’s loving arms through forgiveness.
“He will again have compassion on us, and subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19).
“For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more” (Hebrews 8:12).
“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1:7).
“Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins” (Acts 13:38).
“I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake; and I will not remember your sins” (Isaiah 43:25).
The Return ping
Boaz blesses Ruth with a most remarkable phrase: “May you have a full reward from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge!” (Ruth 2:12)
Under God’s loving wings, even I, a sinner, can find forgiveness and a promise of eternal life!
God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.
Amen!
The thing that constantly amazes me, and reassures me, is that God WANTS to save us.
He’s not up there waiting for us to make some little mistake or slip up so He can zap us and send us to hell, as some religious persuasions teach or present God as.
NOTHING we can do can be right enough for God, but He knows our frame, He remembers that we are dust.
Thank God, too.
There is something we can truly depend on. He is indeed our Rock.
Thank you for those verses that show us God’s wonderful character.
God’s essence is his existence.
The inherent nature of God is not widely understood. God is an entity who will come into existence in our future. He has appeared in the past and the laws of logic limit His presence to those occasions already documented.
If anyone supposes that God is universally present and powerful now, today, and can answer all prayers and all requests, then they overlook the clearly evident fact that evil and chaos rule the world today, and God has not yet come into existence. When He does, things will certainly change.
The theology that is based on God’s omnipresence and unbounded desire to help everyone at all times is clearly negated by millions upon millions of unpleasant facts to the contrary. I don’t say this because I want it to be true, far from it. I say it because it is clearly evident.
We cannot know when this situation will change. But as the question has been asked, what is the inherent nature of God, here then is your answer. It may be different on March 23, 2023, or March 23, 2024, or some other future date.
If you think I am wrong about this, ask this question, why do so many bad things happen to good people? Why did millions die in the holocaust, the Gulag, the Chinese social revolutions, and in dozens of comparable situations? Were they all evil people who deserved to die? Is God so enamoured of his free will experiment that He does not care about such atrocities? Perhaps, then He is a God I would not wish to worship. That God sounds a bit like Ayn Rand (another entity I would not wish to worship).
No, the sad fact of the matter is that God can only do in some mysterious and unfathomable way, those things that He is recorded as having done, for example, appearing to Moses on Sinai, parting the Red Sea, sending Jesus on his ministry (and here again, the lack of intervention was probably more due to the logic of not having intervened, than a desire not to intervene).
I fully believe God will take up full power in the future and destroy evil. He does not do that today for one obvious reason — He cannot. Otherwise He would. How can God be different in the future from how He is today? Only because of different circumstances. It is theological nonsense (preached on an enormous scale) to imagine that today, God allows evil to accomplish its goals to preserve free will, and tomorrow, it will be different.
WHY WAIT FOR TOMORROW?
(we are waiting for the answer)
Job said something along the lines of “shall I trust God only when he sends blessings?” He heals the soul, and sometimes allows suffering to acc9mplish that goal. Come what may, good or evil, everything is meant for good. It was said “what you meant for evil, God meant for good” (or somehting like that). It’s tough to trust God when things aren’t going well, especially when our lives are on The line because of sickness or some evil done to us- but we must remember that mankind wanted evil and chose evil by eating of the forbidden tree, and God allows mankind’s choice to play itself out- noone is immune from the curse in the garden- but thankfully we have a God of love who can comfort us when the evil we chose strikes us .
True enough.
It can be very difficult to trust God when you are sick and feel like you are going to die.
It’s one thing to say, as Job said, ‘Though He slay me yet will I trust in Him.’ when you are feeling well, than when you feel like you are on death’s door and suffering greatly.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.