JOURNAL ~ PsalmsSample

SORRY SEEMS TO BE THE HARDEST WORD - Day 5

“What do you do?” That's one of the go-to topics of conversation when we first meet people. We often also introduce ourselves by our occupation. “My name is Tirza. I'm the teens pastor at IES.” 

So many times we define others and ourselves based on what we do for work. Subconsciously, that idea trickles into how we relate to God. We think that God cares about what we do and our list of ministry involvements or charity donations. If we're being honest, there are times when we try (unsuccessfully) to buy God’s forgiveness. We try to outweigh the sin in our lives with the amount of “good” that we do. Frankly, God doesn't care. Not about "buying" forgiveness - and it doesn't work that way either.

God desires the painful truth. That we sinned. That we are broken people. That we are helpless to save ourselves. God desires us to be completely honest with him and to sincerely be contrite.

There's no angle. We don't express penitence because we got caught. We are remorseful because we understand how helpless we are without God.

I'd like to share one of my friends’ favorite words with you:

Kintsukuroi is a very interesting word that means “to repair with gold.” It refers to “the art of repairing pottery with gold or silver lacquer and understanding that the piece is more beautiful for having been broken.”

The good news is that God doesn’t despise the honesty from a truly repentant heart. Instead, our surrender allows him and his grace to change us and make us whole. Somehow, God is able to make us more whole and more beautiful than we can ever imagine, because we live as testaments of his amazing grace.