Just how much have you been forgiven?

Jesus said: “I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.” | Luke 7:47 (NLT)

This verse takes me right back to 1996, before I was born again, when I felt a presence of love in my life and just knew that it was God. I had a raging thirst for knowledge and approached it as I often do other stuff – fact checks, etc. It slowly dawned on me that everything I was researching was true and that I needed to change but I didn’t want to have to surrender control of my life and resisted change. I thought that I was a good person and that was enough. The night before Mother’s Day in 1996 (the following day I went to church), God made it clear that it was make your mind up time. I was broken, couldn’t stop crying and had to acknowledge that I was a sinner and would never be good enough. Much, much greater than that was the message of Jesus, His mercy, love, grace and forgiveness, a message of glorious hope. That night, I had to acknowledge my sin and turn to God. I can therefore relate to this woman as when you come before Jesus with the knowledge of how great a sinner you are, you are blown away by how great God’s love and forgiveness is. There is no condemnation in Christ. You can kid yourself, others with your outward appearance, but you can never kid God. The more you turn to God and keep your eyes on Him, the more you receive.

I was surprised, after Steve gave me this scripture, where it took me. I wasn’t expecting it to take me where it did but I am glad it did as it is a reminder that when we recognise and acknowledge how great our sin is, it is matched by God’s forgiveness and love. He is enough.