Walking Free: Taking Small Steps to a Big God by Micah TylerSample

Several years ago, I realized I was not keeping a score of wrongs for anyone else, but I certainly was of my own sin, keeping a record that God wasn't. I was not accepting His grace for me, just for everyone around me. I wanted to try to move past my mistakes, but I constantly attached shame to every sin. That makes any of us feel personal pain, so we hide. I sure did, even when I was a youth pastor.

Over time, through God growing and maturing me, I knew I had to receive and accept His grace, mercy, and hope for me first. It’s kind of like the airline’s emergency rule: put on your oxygen mask first and then help everyone else. I also had to accept being a child of God before becoming a minister. I had to practice what I was teaching the students in my care. Even as an adult with adult responsibilities, I had to be His child first. As I got older and became a husband and father, my reliance on God’s grace had to go even deeper.

Because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross, we were never meant to hold ourselves to some unattainable personal standard. We are never supposed to try and be responsible for our sins. We confess and give it all to God; He lifts that burden off us with His atonement and sacrifice. Then, we are not left with guilt and shame, but His righteousness and only with the remembrance that Jesus loved us enough to see our sin, step into our lives and offer His grace. The divine exchange of our sin for His forgiveness.

We deny God and rob ourselves when we do not allow His full gift of forgiveness for the things we carry. If we hold onto any of it, we are putting ourselves in the place of the Forgiver when we are only called to be the forgiven. Whether for the first time, or the first time in a long time, God wants you to be able to say, “I see grace … for me.”

Is there any sin in your life for which God has forgiven you, but you can’t forgive yourself?

How can you receive and accept the truth of today’s two verses and give everything to Him?