I Am Forgiven
“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.” Ephesians 1:7
I wasn’t perfect, but I was a nice person, a rule-follower. Sure, over the years I’d lied, danced with envy, put my interests above Christ, but they were always little things, nothing too dramatic. But one day it hit me—it had always been about me. I’d become my own idol. Time and again, I chose self over God, self over others. I’d broken His law in the worst ways.
As the realization swept through me, humiliation and then terror bubbled up inside. I might’ve been able to hide my true nature from others, but God knew. God saw the real me.
And I felt certain He’d never want me in His heavenly Kingdom. I could never do anything good enough, worthy enough, to make up for it and gain entry.
Yet in the depths of my disgrace, a glimmer of hope flickered. God had provided another way: Jesus. All my life, I’d called myself a Christian, but now I realized that following Jesus meant giving everything over—surrendering to Him as Lord. It meant knowing fully I am lost, doomed, without my Savior.
Today’s Scripture cements that. By dying on the cross for us, Jesus paid the price for our sins and ensured our forgiveness and the salvation of our souls. His sacrifice was entirely free, and we did absolutely nothing to deserve it. He didn’t die because we were kind or pretty, because we listened to our parents or smiled and nodded at the appropriate times. He died for us because He loved us—because God loved us!
I still struggle to push myself aside to focus only on God. It’s a daily effort to squelch my cares, worries, and fears. But I take heart, for I know God sees me.
And I know I am forgiven.
Jessica Brodie is an award-winning journalist and a member of the Wholly Loved Ministry team. She’s also an author who currently serves as the editor of the South Carolina United Methodist Advocate, the oldest newspaper in Methodism. She is the author of More Like Jesus: A Devotional Journey (2018) and editor of Stories of Racial Awakening: Narratives on Changed Hearts and Lives of South Carolina United Methodists (2018), both from her newspaper’s Advocate Press. She also writes contemporary women’s fiction, represented by Bob Hostetler of The Steve Laube Agency. Her novel The Memory Garden won the American Christian Fiction Writers’ 2018 Genesis Contest. She has a faith blog at JessicaBrodie.com.
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Originally published Friday, 14 July 2023.
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