Paint Smudges

READ: PSALM 103:8-12; EPHESIANS 1:4-5; 2:1-10; 1 JOHN 1:9

Picture this: You and a friend are standing side by side. You each have an easel in front of you, and you’re working carefully on your own paintings. Then you take a step back, proudly declaring, “I think this is the best painting I’ve done yet.” Your friend admires your work, motioning with their brush to one of their favorite spots. But their hand slips, and they accidentally smear paint on your canvas! In dismay they apologize and offer to help fix the smudge, but the more the two of you try to dab and wipe at the blemish, the worse it looks.

“Can you ever forgive me?” your friend asks, near tears, holding the ruined painting. “I am so sorry!” While you’re understandably disappointed, you try to comfort your friend.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s okay. I’ll do it over. It will be a masterpiece next time—you’ll see.” But you can tell your friend isn’t convinced. You try to reassure them, but they seem to feel even worse about the painting than you do.

When we hurt someone—whether intentionally or accidentally—it can be difficult to accept that the person we hurt has forgiven us. And on the other hand, when we forgive someone who has hurt us, we want them to believe us when we say they’re forgiven.

Similarly, when God says we’re forgiven, He wants us to believe Him too. But sometimes we don’t. We might confess the same thing to Jesus several times, thinking we need to earn His forgiveness by begging and pleading. But Jesus died and rose again so all our sins could be erased—past, present, and future. God’s love for us is unshakable, and He always forgives us.

Do you believe Jesus when He says He forgives you? If you trust Him as your Savior, you can have full confidence that when He says He forgives all your sins, He means it. When we lie, hate, say something cruel, or do something that seems even worse, we can confess it all to Him. In His Word He assures us that, through Jesus’s sacrificial death on the cross and resurrection from the grave, all our sins have been forgiven and erased. • A. W. Smith

• When do you struggle to believe that Jesus has forgiven you? Do you know any Bible verses you could memorize to help you take this wonderful truth to heart? Who are some trusted Christians in your life who can help remind you of Jesus’s sure forgiveness?

“I—yes, I alone—will blot out your sins for my own sake and will never think of them again.” Isaiah 43:25 (NLT)