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We all have at our very core the need for forgiveness. We experience amazing grace from our Lord every time we come to him with humble hearts, confessing our sins.

Jesus Himself thought it so important that He forgave the paralytic man before He healed him (see Mark 2). That tells us that in order to begin a right relationship with God, we must first be forgiven and in order to maintain that relationship, we need to continually seek the Lord’s forgiveness.

David, who knew what it meant to be forgiven, says this in Psalm 32:5, “Finally, I confessed all my sins to You and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, ‘I will confess my rebellion to the LORD.’ And You forgave me! All my guilt is gone” (nlt).

That’s amazing grace in action, Jesus replacing our guilt and shame and restoring us to a right relationship with God.

So how do you know your sins are forgiven? The Bible says this: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9 niv).

A promise from Jesus is a promise we can always count on.

There’s an additional requirement however. Not only do we need to seek forgiveness, we need to be quick to offer forgiveness. Matthew 6:14 tells us, “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you” (niv).

Pastor Greg Laurie has shared on many occasions that “forgiven people need to be forgiving people.” Our unforgiving attitude towards others generates anger and frustration and creates a root of bitterness that becomes harder and harder to dig up. That’s not part of the abundant life Christ has called us to.

Perhaps the other person hasn’t said they are sorry. That makes the process of forgiveness even more challenging. Their repentance somehow becomes more important than our own and it takes the wind out of our sails in our efforts to truly forgive them.

So how do we overcome this?

We need to look at our ultimate example, Jesus, and remember this: “You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for He forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:13–14 nlt).

Add to this, Paul in his epistle to the Colossians shared these words, not as a suggestion, but as a command, for our own benefit. He said, “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity” (Colossians 3:13–14 niv).

That’s amazing grace, overflowing from our Lord towards us, that we in turn would extend that grace to others, keeping us in right fellowship with our Creator.