Reckless Love Radical Forgiveness

Wednesday Wanderings with Dr. Sherri is a time we set aside to wander in the Presence of Jesus and ponder His truths. When you are ready, prepare your mind, body, and soul to have a transformational encounter with Jesus.

Watch the Wednesday Wanderings Welcome for this week.

Now that we have cleared our minds of the clutter, we can wander on the loving and forgiving journey of exploring God’s reckless love and radical forgiveness.

PREPARATION: In our last Wandering we examined the wondrous work of our Beautiful God. This week we will continue by exploring the wonder of God’s reckless love and radical forgiveness. When you are ready, you may begin the dialogue with Jesus and state: “Jesus, I invite you to help me to leisurely wander into your Presence. Prepare my heart to receive and illuminate my spiritual senses to encounter your love and forgiveness.”

PROMISE: Ephesians 2:4-6 The Message

2 ^1-6 It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.

God’s promised, unmerited, incredible, and wondrous love (1) deliberately offers saving grace and eternal life (John 3:16-18) even to those who  reject it, (2) gives forgiveness to those who continually sin against Him, and (3) recklessly and radically lavishes us with the privilege to be called His children (1 John 3:1).

PSALM: In the song How Great thou Art Carl Boberg ponders the question, How could it be God’s pleasure to sacrifice His only Son for sinners to make them saints? He writes:

And when I think of God, His Son not sparing
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in
That on the Cross, my burden gladly bearing
He bled and died to take away my sin

The song writer confesses that he cannot sufficiently comprehend how God, in His loving devotion, sacrificed His perfect son without scrutinizing our imperfections and merit. He can scantily conceive that because of Jesus, the price of our sins are exchanged for the Divine, liberating, reconciling, and eternal, life-giving righteousness of Christ (2 Corin 5:21).

How could this be? It is because God’s reckless LOVE promises us radical forgiveness. The term reckless here focuses on God’s LOVE that breaks the stronghold of sin so we can live free of condemnation (Romans 8:1). It indicates that God was not concerned about His hurts and His loss because His love for us is greater than our sins. Reckless is the closest term human diction provides for there are no words to articulate such a divine covenant love. Take a moment to thank God for such a love and ask Him to help you to accept, with pleasure, His reckless love and radical forgiveness.

PARABLE: 

Keeping ourselves in the love of God ( Jude 1:21) will help us to not use grace as a license to sin but will also help us to not let sin hold us captive. Because of the reckless love and radical forgiveness of  God we receive absolute pardon with no strings attached, we are liberated from the bondage of sin with no condemnation (Romans 8:1), we are reconciled by and with our Father, and we are welcomed into the inheritance of God.

The fatal dilemma is resolved. The Spirit of Life in Christ has freed us. The dilemma is not if God showers us with His love and grants us His forgiveness. The dilemma is that we do not live in His love and forgiveness.

Take these three steps to Live in the Reckless Love and Radical Forgiveness of God

1. Reframe the Story (John 8:36). Live on God’s terms in His liberating and redemptive love that unquestionable frees you from sin.
2. Tell the Story (Ephesians 2: 4-6). Share the testimony of the tyranny God’s love has freed you from in your life.
3. Live the Story (Jude 1:20-21). Build your life on the holy faith of Jesus with your arms constantly reaching for and receiving His saving grace and mercy, anxiously awaiting eternal life.

Walk HEAVY in freedom and forgive yourself! The price of the forgiveness for your mistakes, regrets, sin, and shame, hurts, habits, and hangups  were already purchased with the blood of Jesus Christ.

PONDER and WANDER:

Ponder the question:   How will I reframe, tell, and share the story of God’s reckless love and radical forgiveness for me?

Take time to allow the Holy Spirit to show you how to develop a 30 second elevator speech that summarizes your story of the wondrous work of God’s reckless love and radical forgiveness displayed in your life. An opportunity is awaiting for you to share.

PRAYER: How great you are God! Your wondrous love is greater than my sin. As your child (1John 3:1), there is NO-thing, NO-place, NO-story, NO-feeling, and NO-sin that will keep me from your marvelous love.  Undo my perceptions until I remember the wondrous works of your radical forgiveness freely given on the cross and fully encounter your reckless love (Psalm 77:11-12) as your beloved child. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen.

PRAISE: Now that you have emptied your mind of the clutter and wandered with Jesus, take a closing moment to thank God for radically paying the price of your forgiveness with His reckless love!  Let the work of your wandering fill you with the assurance that our Great God has empowered you to live like the chains of sin were broken with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.

Then take the mindfulness of God’s presence cultivated in these last few minutes of wandering into the next ones and beyond.

Until next time, be Resonant.

PERSONAL BONUS: I constantly struggle with living in the forgiving love of God. I continue to define His grace and love with my minimal vocabulary and conceptions. God has challenged me to surrender my misconceptions and allow Him to undo me. The lyrics of the song help me with the process. If you choose, when you have time, you may take about four minutes to listen to the song  Undo You and allow God’s reckless love to free you to accept His radical forgiveness.

Image and reference attributions:
Reckless love and Radical forgiveness: https://pixabay.com/photos/hawaii-kauai-rainbow-nature-284611/ with text added
Wondrous cross: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/assembly-graphics-abstraction-image-1479723/
Reframe tell Live: https://pixabay.com/photos/church-cross-christian-religion-2853687/ with text added
Undo You: https://pixabay.com/photos/violin-violin-bow-instrument-4216384/ with text added
Reference: Tipping, C. (2011). Radical Forgiveness: The direct path to true self-acceptance. Boulder, CO: Sounds True with adaptions.