Guilty Yet Forgiven

Imagine being acquitted of a crime and then told you are being retried for the same crime, years later.  This is happening to Amanda Knox.  Accused of murdering her room mate 6 years ago and spending 4 years of that time in an Italian prison, the Italian courts had decided she was innocent, yet now a new trial will begin, once again they decide her fate. 

How would you feel? Frightened, depressed, would you want to give up on life?

Amanda being retried for the same crime hardly seems fair, does it?  Yet so many of us do the same thing to ourselves everyday.  We ask God for forgiveness of our sins, then we replay them over & over again like an old movie in our heads; we relive the pain and anguish very time, it’s gut wrenching torture. Why?  Well, I believe most just cannot believe they have been forgiven therefore cannot forgive themselves.

"It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah." Ephesians 2:1-6 The Message

I love that it says God didn’t lose His temper, but with so much love & mercy for us He forgave us.  Now we have to do our part. Take these words deep in our soul; really feel God’s forgiveness. Let it replace that gut wrenching guilt and stop the torture. Forgive yourself and stop replaying the movie in your head. The Message bible, in Psalms 103, says

"And as far as sunrise is from sunset, He has separated us from our sins."

If God can forgive & forget your sin to this great extent, so should you.  It may take some work, perhaps even on a daily basis, but you’ll get it! 

Lysa Terkeurst has a great way to phrase this- 

“Imperfect progress is still progress” 

I am sure Amanda is frightened and maybe a little depressed, but she is not giving up, she is fighting. Let that inspire you to turn off that movie, take a deep breath and fight to forgive yourself of everything.