Faithbase

Prayer day nine. Start with prayer. Dear God, please help me to hear you and understand your message for me. Amen. The beans or the background. Peter wrote the letter of 1st Peter to encourage believers with the hope they're called to cling to and remind us of who it is that goes before us and what it is he did on our behalf. The verse. 1st Peter chapter 2 verse 24. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. The fill. What's the point? I've heard the saying Jesus died for my sins maybe a million times over the course of my life and I got it, sort of. I knew that we were all sinners in nature. I knew that in order for us to be reconciled to God, in order for the gap to be bridged between us, sin had to be crushed, covered, eliminated. I knew that Jesus died to bridge that gap but I couldn't see or couldn't feel my connection to it all. I mean we live in 2019 after all, thousands of years after his death. While I was grateful for his sacrifice, I just couldn't fully connect my sins to the cross until I read today's verse. He, Jesus, bore our sins in his body on the cross. My sins weren't on the cross or just hanging out in some distant future. My sins were in his body. With every swing of the hammer coming down to drive the nails deeper into his hands and feet, my sins within his body were crushed and eliminated. His body was broken to cover the times where I lash out at my husband for that cup in the sink, for every time I yell at my kid when he doesn't deserve it. Jesus died to cover every single piece of gossip I shared about a friend and every situation I manipulated to get my way. All of those things were inside his body as he went to the cross. The weight of my past hung within his body and it's because of that that I am set free and I'm able to let it all go. Our sins were crushed thousands of years before we were born so that we could be free to let go of the weight of shame and guilt and free to stop the cycle of sin in our everyday lives. We are righteous in his eyes and we are called to see and live that truth out each day. The steam. What does this mean to me and how can I apply it to my life today? Just so we're clear friend, Jesus took that thing of yours, that thing you did, he took it with him on the cross. He took the big things and the small things, the things you remember doing and the things you're just waking up to the fact that you even do. The price for all was covered in full. So logically the next question becomes, so why do we continue to pray daily for forgiveness then? Because truth be told we're really good at forgetting. We're really good at continuing to carry around shame and guilt of our past so getting that daily reminder that you're forgiven is good for your soul and when we pray he can highlight those bad habits we have in hopes that we'll make changes that will ultimately make our lives and the lives of those around us much better. So today after you've listed your blessings, asked for discernment over your day and listed out your other needs, I want you to ask for forgiveness. Here's a quick example of pardon. Dear God, thank you for loving me enough to die on the cross. Lord help me to receive your forgiveness. Take back the shame and guilt I've been carrying and flood me with your peace and also Lord I'm gonna get quiet for a moment and I ask that you'll just bring something to mind that I need to change. Something that I've been doing that's hurting either myself or others. Help me to identify it and then Lord give me the strength to change. Amen.