How Teens P.R.A.Y.Намуна

“A” is for Absolution

Praise and revelation: check. Now it’s time to pray for the thing you, as the lying, lustful, hard-headed, disrespectful, foulmouthed ingrate you are, need most – absolution. (By the way, if I just hurt your feelings with all that name-calling, get over yourself. That particular string of insults applies to you, me, and everybody else on Earth. If you’ll start reading your Bible regularly, you’ll understand why.)

Absolution is a fancy word for forgiveness. But not forgiveness for things like forgetting to do your chores or being late to a date. No, the type of forgiveness you’re praying for is to be released from all your guilt and spared the punishment you know you deserve. Absolution is big.

If you were to take, let’s say, five minutes and write down a list of every bad thing you’ve done, just in the last week or so – who all you’ve lied to, how often you’ve lusted or acted on your urges, who all you said or did something mean to, who you’ve hurt, how many times you fantasized about someone or something, how often you lost your temper, jumped to conclusions, or assumed the worst about someone – one of two things would happen, perhaps both: either you’d realize you need way more than five minutes to write it all down, or else you would get so discouraged by the things on your list that you would stop writing before time was up.

If you prayed for revelation per yesterday’s instructions, you’re probably already becoming aware of just how messed up you and the choices you’ve made are. All that ugliness that you’ve been ignoring, it might be news to you, but God has always known what you are.

But do you know what the best part is? He loves you anyway! Nothing you’ve ever said, thought, or done – and nothing you ever will say, think, or do – will ever, ever, EVER make Him stop loving you! Stop and think about that for just a sec. That’s huge! (If you’re not getting goosebumps yet, read it again!)

Nevertheless, there is a lot we need to be absolved of. And, just like revelation, God expects us to ask Him for it. The greatest of great news, though, is this: God’s own Son, Jesus, already took your guilt and punishment upon Himself when He died for you on the cross.

Do you get what that means? It means you don’t have to be guilty anymore, even though you’re guilty of some pretty awful stuff. There is no punishment waiting for you, even though you sorely deserve it. Getting off the hook – being absolved – is as simple as asking God to forgive your sins, and accepting the sacrifice of His Son as payment for all your debts.