Just got through working on material for our weekly Sunday School teachers meeting. Our Education Minister is going to be out of town tonight, so he asked me to teach. Now as much as I love to teach, teaching teachers can be a daunting thought. And to make matters worse, we're beginning a study in Zechariah. I really struggle with the Old Testament passages-especially prophecies.
Anyway, as I began to study last night and continued on into today, I began to see God's incredible love once again. I was reminded of some very important things that are in the first chapter of Zechariah.
1. God does not want to stay angry with us. Yes, God get incredibly angry when we sin and turn our backs on Him. However, God loves us so much that He will turn away from His anger so that the relationship can be restored.
2. We have to take the step to "Return to Him." We can't stay where we are at. God will accept us with the sin, which He will forgive, but He won't let us stay in our sin. We have to get up from where we are and return to Him. When we return to Him, He will return to us.
3. As I state above, we can't stay where we were. We have to repent of our sins. Leighton Flowers gave the best interpretation of repenting. It's not just turning from our sins, but it's destroying the path way back to it. Repentance is not true repentance if we continually find ourselves returning to the sin. We can't just turn away. We have to destroy all the paths back to that sin. It has to become an island that is impossible for us to get to.
4. God promises to restore us when we faithfully return to Him.
5. We don't have to live in guilt over past sins. Jim Denison write this: "Know that your Father waits for you to return to him so that he can return to you. Name your sin or failure specifically with repentant contrition. Ask your Father to forgive you for it. Claim his promise of mercy and grace...the next time guilt returns, take it to grace. Say to your shame, 'I am forgiven and all my sins are forgotten.'"
That my friends is good news! I have to constantly be reminded of these things. Thank you Lord for making me have to teach this lesson to other teachers so that I can be reminded of your Love, Grace, Forgiveness, and Restoration.
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I never see God as "angry" with me. Because of the mediation of Jesus on my behalf, every time I sin it passes through the filter of Christ's blood and reaches the throne of God as "Paid In Full". I get angry at myself plenty.
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