100 Days of HopeSample

The Power To Forgive

This verse strikes me with an incredible truth: we are to fear (i.e., revere) God not because of His power to chasten us, but because of His power to forgive. Why is it—two thousand years after Jesus brought us the new covenant—that we still so often view God as one with a vengeful look in His eye, ready to turn His back on us at our smallest slip-up?

Is this because we know that He is holy and therefore we believe we can never truly be close to Him? Or is it because our natural state is to hold a grudge, to get angry, and to seek revenge? I believe it’s the latter.

Our own unwillingness to forgive makes us doubt God’s forgiveness.

But God desires us to take Him at His word. As a psalm of ascents, these verses instruct us how we are to approach our maker: With holy fear, not that He will reject us, but in the knowledge that He forgives us. The power of our sin cannot separate us from Him!

And God provides an even greater miracle: He gives us the power to forgive. God’s great power of forgiveness—the reason we are to fear Him—is offered to us that we may give grace to others.

Prayer: Father, thank you for your gift of forgiveness. We praise you for your love and compassion. Help us to approach you boldly, grounded in the knowledge of your forgiveness.