Forgiveness

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. Ephesians 1:7,8

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9



Why is forgiveness such a difficult thing to do? When someone hurts you so deeply it can seem impossible to forgive them for the horrible thing that they did or said to you. Sometimes we struggle with forgiving God for doing something that wasn't in our plan or taking something or someone away from us. But other times the real struggle comes with forgiving ourselves. Forgiving myself for past sins is often a difficult hurdle for me to overcome. Understanding true forgiveness from the Lord that is given to us through the blood of Jesus Christ is something that I don't know if I will ever fully understand. It frustrates me when I know better or knew better and still chose to sin because it was fun, I was afraid, or I just blatantly ignored what I knew was wrong. I know that He forgives me when I truly repent, wipes me clean again, and makes me white as snow but it is so easy to continue to beat myself up about something that God has long forgiven me for. I also know that when we don't forgive ourselves we aren't honoring God and are basically telling Him, it's not good enough that you forgave me, my sin is too big. But NO sin is too big to forgive and Jesus paid the penalty for our constant sin. The true freedom and peace that God allows us to have through forgiveness is amazing. There is so much to delve into with the gift of forgiveness, but tonight I just wanted to share that little bit that was on my heart.

The past few days in Guatemala have been interesting. I will never try to assume I know what is coming next on this study abroad adventure because things never seem to go as planned. God really is teaching me patience and continually revealing to me my areas of weakness. I am at the point in the trip where the little things just start to nag at me. I am praying to rid myself of the frustration and annoyance towards people that I have because I know that it builds up and doesn't lead to anything good. Satan really knows where to get me and attacks me whenever possible. But, I'm going to fight against that and choose every day to wake up and let God lead me through the day. It is really amazing how much I have learned since camp this summer from intentionally spending time with the Lord every morning. I don't know how I ever made it without that time.



We have one more full day here in Guatemala. It really is a beautiful country and I am enjoying the cooler weather and majestic mountain scenery. However, I am not looking forward to our 8 hour bus ride to Mexico and crossing the border. I am definitely going to have to take some dramamine for motion sickness for the drive :/ The positive side is we only have one more week of this GHS class and then we finally get to have a new professor! On Sunday there are five more weeks left and I'm sure it is going to fly. I'm eager to continue to learn about Latin America and find out what else God is going to teach me here.

Much more lies ahead! Until next time.

Shelby