St. Paul is a perfect example of one who was Living in the Joy of  Forgiveness.   The joy was not from the one dramatic experience on the Road to  Damascus, but from time after time of going before His Lord to seek forgiveness.  Doing what he should not do and not doing what he should do bothered Paul.  For this he also sought forgiveness.

Unfortunately, most people do not know the joy of living in forgiveness because they do not understand the importance and prevalence of sin in their lives.  At the same time, they have the false assumption that all they do for their Church certainly must cancel out the few sins they admit that they do commit.

We turn to St. Paul to see how he experiences this joy of living in forgiveness.  First we look at the last half of our verse:  “yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!”  We don’t use the phrase “Woe is me” much anymore.  It carries meanings such as, How miserable I am, or What agony I suffer, or in more familiar words, How down and depressed I become. Sometimes I wonder if we are in misery, agony or depression simply because we are not doing what God wants us to do.  Paul believed this. No matter how much he preached the Gospel, no matter what hardships and harms he faced, the only thing that mattered was that he continue to preach the Gospel.   If Paul would say that he had taught Sunday School long enough, someone else can do it now, or he had served on enough committees or had done enough volunteer work, when he realized what he had said, he would say, “Woe is me.”

This brings us  to the first part of the verse:   “For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me;”   How many people do you know who do things for the Church or the Community or some charitable cause and then become very upset because they did not get publicly thanked or their name was either omitted or misspelled in the Church bulletin or in an article in the paper.  Many have left the Church because of this and are miserable because they were not honored.  From St. Paul we see just the opposite.  He said that he had nothing to boast about because he did  it out of a necessity that was laid upon him.

From my viewpoint, St. Paul knew the joy of living in forgiveness.  It was such an overwhelming joy that he had no choice but to proclaim Jesus and His Love over and over again, wherever he could.  He continued do this even knowing that his life was in danger from those who sought to destroy the lives of those who were teaching the forgiving love of Jesus.

Do you feel God’s forgiving love when you confess your sins?   If you do, then you, like St. Paul, will not boast but will be inspired by God to do all that  you can so others might know the Joy of Living in the Forgiveness of God.

WE PRAY:  Heavenly Father, I come to you to confess my sins and to seek your forgiveness.  Lead me to discover those times where I have sinned and have not known that I have.  Help me to identify those things that I should have done and did not do.  As you lift this burden of sin from me, let me hear the words, go and sin no more, and then help me to see the joy that can be mine when I live in Your forgiveness.

A SUGGESTION FOR LIVING  THE DEVOTION