News Flash! The Church is for Sinners!  I had a parishioner once say to me, “I don’t need to come to church, I just enjoy it.  I am old man and no longer sin; therefore, I do not need forgiveness.”  It took all I had not to tell this dear old man, “Well, you just did.  You just sinned in the eyes of the Lord.  Your pride is in the way of seeing yourself as a sinner.”  In God’s eyes – a sin is a sin.  One sin is not greater than the other.  Furthermore, we cannot receive God’s forgiveness without repentance.  It is a slippery slope if we believe we have not done anything wrong.

In Psalm 51:1-13, the Psalmist is crying out to the Lord for forgiveness.  In fact, the Psalmist recognizes that he or she is “born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5).  Our repentance leads us to God’s forgiveness.  Not the other way around.

Take time to reflect and recognize your wrongdoings and ask God to forgive you.  Read Psalm 51:10-12:

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence,  and do not take your holy spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.”

Let us pray…Gracious God, none of us are free from your sin except through your forgiveness.  We cannot free ourselves from sin!  Only you can.  Help us to come to you with our sin and create in us a clean heart.  In your name we pray, Amen