“But How Can You Know”

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

If you know that you had done something sinful, or you said something wrong, but you didn’t know what it was, could you still confess to it and ask for forgiveness?  If so, how could you know that you were truly forgiven?  I know God can forgive any sin, but how many times do you have to ask to rest yourself assured that you are forgiven?  I know the answer is once.  I KNOW, BUT IT DOESN'T FEEL LIKE ENOUGH.  Please help.

Sincerely,
Remorseful

Dear Remorseful,

As you said, the answer is that you only need to ask once (1 Jn 1:9)... and that includes sins that you don't fully understand.  David asked that God would keep him from "secret sins" (Ps 19:12-13).  However, that really isn't your problem.  Your problem is that it doesn't feel like you are forgiven because that seems too easy.  God tells us that we must have faith in Him (Gal 3:26).  Faith comes through hearing God's Word and trusting in that Word (Rom 10:17).  Sometimes the Bible says things that we don't agree with or that we don't feel could be true... but that doesn't change the fact that they are right.  When our feelings and God's Word disagree with each other, we are the ones that need to accept that we are wrong.  God's grace is much more glorious than we can possibly imagine – we all will spend our entire lives trying to wrap our brains around the depths of God's love (Php 4:7).

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