The Good Stuff!

Thursday night as I was sitting in my Experiencing God study group, one of the group members made a very profound statement that has stuck with me! This statement is one of truth and one that all should hear:
When God writes my story, He will only write the good stuff!
Think about that a minute, He will only write the good stuff! As we read in Exodus about Moses story, we find he murdered a man, but as you read in Hebrews, that isn't mentioned. God forgave him of the sins he had committed and he never brings it up again! Wow what a blessing that is! When God forgives us, it is forgiven all the way as the east is from the west! God doesn't throw in our faces that things we did before we were saved, He forgives and that is it! Thank God for that grace!
Now if only we could do the same! We think about the sins we committed everyday and we ask God why forgive me, don't you know what I have done? God knows what we have done, God knew what we were going to do before we ever did it, yet He loves us, pursues us, and forgives us anyway! God sent His son to die for our sins, already knowing what those sins would be. I can just tell you, for me, I don't understand why He would love someone like me for the things I did and I think most of them are pretty horrible.
Even after I got saved and I still chose the road that wasn't the best. I was drinking daily for about 19 months when I was in high school, and there were times it got really scary. There were days I woke up and wondered how I had gotten in the bed because that wasn't the last memory I had. I played the Christian game good though. I was a great Sunday morning Christian, but Sunday afternoon through Saturday, those were my days, not His. He knew how I would be through that time in my life, yet He forgave me and loved me anyway! What amazing grace that is!
It is up to us to forgive ourselves. We can go to the altar every Sunday and cry out to Jesus, but until we lay down our baggage and refuse to pick it up, we will always feel like why me. I am no expert in laying that baggage down and leaving it there, but little by little I am dropping my bags off! Every altar visit, I lose 1 more chain link in my long, long chain of forgiveness. Jesus doesn't want us weighted down by our baggage that He has already forgiven us for, He wants us out changing the world! Jesus set me free when He came into my heart and I truly started to live for Him! I didn't do it right everytime and most of the time, I still don't do it right, but I know when my story is written in the book by God, He won't bring up all the garbage, just the good stuff! Amazing Grace, My Chains Are Gone!