Devotion Booklets for Seasons of the Church Year Lent 2018 | Page 40

Let Go of the Past
Sunday, March 18th
Psalm 32:1-2
It started innocently. All he did was look. It was late and he couldn’t sleep. When he got up and
walked around, he noticed the neighbor’s window was open. Perhaps to his surprise at first, he noticed
his neighbor’s wife bathing through the open window. Why didn’t he just look away? That would have
saved him so much pain and trouble. But he didn’t. He kept looking. The lustful desire was already
planted in his heart. This lustful desire led him, against the advice of his servant, to inquire further
about this lady. The inquiry led to a sexual affair. The sexual affair led to an unwanted pregnancy.
The unwanted pregnancy led to lying, which eventually led to murder. All of this pain and trouble
came from innocently looking at the neighbor’s window when he couldn’t sleep. This question
haunted him: Why didn’t he just look away?
How many times don’t we look back at our sins, and feel haunted by the same question? Oh, the shame
and embarrassment and guilt we experience all because we didn’t look away! Oh, how foolish we feel
as we look back at situations that could have been avoided if we had just stopped our thoughts and
actions as soon as they started to stray! But we didn’t. We didn’t look away. And those initial thoughts
and actions led to increasing sins, and resulting consequences that we feel to this day. Perhaps we are
still haunted by shame and guilt from foolish actions that happened years and years ago. If only we
had looked away!
While David knew guilt and shame from his sin, he also knew the blessing of God’s forgiveness. God
didn’t condone David’s sin, but he did take his sin away. When God saw David confessing his sin and
trusting in God for forgiveness, he saw a man covered in the perfect life Jesus would live. He saw a
man washed as white as snow by the perfect death Jesus would die. Even though Christ wasn’t due to
be born for 1,000 years, David had the blessing of God’s forgiveness in the coming Savior.
You have that same blessing. However foolish you feel, whatever guilt and shame that you carry for
sins you have done, God offers you the gift of free forgiveness in Jesus. The past need not haunt you
any longer. God doesn’t excuse your sin, but in Jesus he has forgiven it, covered it up, and removed it
from his sight forever. You can let go of the past and move into the future blessed by Christ.
Prayer: Dear Jesus, forgive us for all the sins we have committed against you. Help us to let go of our
sinful past, and fill us with your peace as we marvel at the sacrifice Jesus made for us. Amen.
Activity: Have each family member write on a small sheet of paper a sin that haunts them from the
past and fold up the sheet so no one else can see it. Then have each person take their sheet and tear it
into little pieces, to illustrate how God no longer sees your sins or counts them against you.
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