Quick answers to common questions
Have you done something you know to be wrong, and wonder if God will forgive you?
I have good news for you. Read on!
Forgiveness is important
When we do something we know to be wrong, especially if it hurts someone we love, we feel guilt and shame. And our relationship with that person may be spoilt.
Forgiveness means that the person we have wronged decides to look past the hurt and have goodwill rather than resentment towards us.
It is the same with God.
When God forgives us, he pardons our wrongdoing and restores our relationship with him. Our guilt and shame are removed. So it is understandable that we desperately want to know that God has forgiven us.
A loving God
Christianity teaches us that God loves us and wants the best for us. So he has a forgiving attitude towards us.
But we need to know we have reconciled with God so we can be pardoned and freed from our guilt and shame. It takes two to maintain a relationship, so we need to tell him we’re sorry and ask for forgiveness, just as we should do if we have hurt another person.
But once we apologise and seek his forgiveness, we can be confident that we have been pardoned and the relationship with God has been restored.
God WILL forgive us if we ask him!
To continue in this restored relationship, we need to try to avoid making the same mistakes again, and if we do wrong again, quickly ask for his forgiveness again.
Forgiveness and Jesus
It is a fundmamental part of christian belief that our forgiveness is sonmehow bound up with Jesus’death. It is a mystery how this works, but the age-old formula is “Jesus died for our sins”.
So as we respond to God’s forgivenes by seeking to live our life in harmony with him, this means following the way of Jesus. Forgiving anyone who hurts us and caring for others.
The Bible says ….
if we confess our sins to God, he will keep his promise and do what is right: he will forgive us our sins and purify us from all our wrongdoing
1 John 1:9
Return to the Q & A index page, or read more about God’s forgiveness in The importance of forgiveness.
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