A: A lot of teens struggle with this question. We get caught in the exhausting cycle of doing something wrong, feeling guilty about it, and hoping that God will forgive us just one more time. We worry that the next time we mess up, God will shout down at us from heaven in a scary, booming voice, “That’s it! You’ve exceeded your limit of how many times I will forgive you. Sorry, but you don’t get to go to heaven now.”
Here’s the good news: No
matter how many times you mess up, God will always, always forgive you whole-heartedly if you repent. The Bible says in Numbers 14:18, “The Lord is
slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion.” You know what that means? That means we can live without the fear of
never being good enough!
Now, just because Jesus
forgives our sins does not mean we can just go around intentionally
sinning, then asking God to forgive us.
You know what I’m talking about:
“I know my mom said not to
use her special Glazed Berry lipstick anymore, but I’ll just put a few coats on
and ask God to forgive me for disobeying.”
No! That would be abusing God’s
grace. Romans 6:1-2 says, “What shall we
say, then? Shall we go on sinning so
that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin, how can we live in it any longer?”
If you do sin, however (and
we will, no matter how hard we try to be good), confess it to the Lord, repent,
and try to never do it again. God knows
your heart. If you continually try to
love and obey him, he will always welcome you into his grace with open arms.
{ you might also like: how to overcome sin }
Love this post, Mariah!
ReplyDeleteThank you Melissa!
ReplyDeleteSo cool.. Great post Mariah!
ReplyDeleteThank you Dahlia!
DeleteThis is so good and so true!
ReplyDeleteYes, I think a lot of teenagers can relate to this article. :) Thanks for reading!
DeleteI really needed this post! Thank you so much, Mariah! God bless!
ReplyDeleteAww yay! Stay tuned for more of Mariah's posts! ;)
DeleteI'm so glad I could help you! That is my main goal in writing: to help lead people closer to God. Thank you for listening to His voice!
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