The past couple of weeks God has been teaching me a lesson of forgiving and asking for forgiveness. What was reiterated to me was the
power of forgiveness. Whether you are religious or not, you have to admit the power of letting a grudge and bitterness go and forgiving the offender. It's wild and maybe painful, the release you feel and what you can accomplish with that. And to be forgiven is something so...there are no words. I know many of you think, 'well, what does Lisa know of being forgiven. She's so sweet." In the words of Andrew Peterson, "so you think i'm not a dirty rotten scoundrel through and through, well, lady, I've got news for you" and that news God reminded me of at church through Isaiah 53 (1, 3-6, 11)
Who believes what we've heard and seen? Who would have thought God's saving power would look like this?
He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand. One look at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, thought he was scum. But the fact is, is was
our pain he carried-
our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures. But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him-our sins. He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed. We've all done our own thing, gone our own way and God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong on him.
Our of that terrible travail of soul, he'll see that it's worth it and be glad he did it.
Sometimes I really feel there is a blackness in my soul that's really pretty horrible and hurts others. Thank God, he put that blackness on Jesus and Jesus took it knowing he would be glad. I'm free!!
