GRATITUDE 2 - Thank God if He's forgiven your sins!

Gratitude 2 - English files

Dankbarkeit 2 - German files

Devotional Thoughts about Luke 7:37-50

We all tend to put the people in our lives into categories as being grumpy, loud, sweet, snooty, generous, dishonest, calm, bossy, kind, nervous, reliable, mean, etc., so it’s not surprising that the woman in this story was known in town as a sinner. But probably very few of those who called her that would have described themselves in the same way.

It’s the same with us. Although we often keep track of other people’s mistakes, we’re much more indulgent with our own. We defend our motives to ourselves and have excuses ready. Especially these days, most people don’t think of themselves as sinners. But we are. Even saved sinners who’ve received forgiveness know the daily fight with sin isn’t yet over.

Many Christians don’t want to remember their sin and would prefer to ignore it, but remembering is an important part of thankfulness. In Isaiah 51:1, it’s the righteous people who are told to look back and remember where they came from, what they used to be. That’s a prominent theme throughout the Old Testament. The awfulness of sin makes God’s forgiveness and grace all the sweeter.

We don’t know whether the woman’s sins were worse than Simon’s, but she wasn’t in denial about them. Therefore her love for Jesus and her thankfulness for forgiveness were proportionately huge. Lord, let me never forget what You've done for me and never get tired of thanking you for it.

Downloading lesson files

If you're interested in the lesson files, simply click on the appropriate link above to download them in the desire language. See the Informational Pages in the right column for more about the lesson series. The next three blogs will contain more lessons in the Gratitude series.