JVI-921 MayJune04PT.qxd - Jack Van Impe Ministries

Perhaps Today | May-June 2004 Rexella Van Impe 20
I heard a story about a little girl who
said to her pastor, “I want you to
know that I am saved.”
“That’s wonderful, honey,” he said.
“Can you tell me which one of my
sermons brought you to Christ”
The little girl replied, “It wasn’t anybody’s
preaching—it was my Aunt
Mary’s practicing!”
Let me make it clear that I certainly
am not suggesting that we nonchalantly
fail more and sin more,
expecting God to erase whatever we
do. That’s not what I mean at all.
The truth is that even when we do
our best to live righteously, there
are times when we will not make
the right choices. And in those
times we can and should say,
“Where’s my eraser”
Sin brings shame, but confession
brings confidence. The Bible says, If
we confess our sins, he is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins, and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness
(1 John 1:9). We can be victorious in
the Lord. We can live a life like Aunt
Mary that draws others to Jesus. We
may have failed yesterday. We may
fail today. But we can ask Him to
erase our failures and sins. Then we
When God erases your sins and you begin
a new life, not only is your future
clean, but your past is clean also.
Living the life of Christ day by day is
not always easy, but there is such
power in our testimony. In Romans
7:19, Paul talks about the struggle he
faced every day in doing what was
right. For the good that I would I do
not: but the evil which I would not,
that I do. Yet, just a few verses later,
he declares, There is therefore now
no condemnation to them which are
in Christ Jesus, who walk not after
the flesh, but after the Spirit (8:1).
What’s the secret Being willing to
say, “Where’s my eraser” Jesus came
into the world for a purpose — not
only to set the example of a perfect
life and to show us God on earth and
what we can be though Him, but
also to erase the blackboard of our
lives again and again! I often find
myself saying in my prayer, “Lord,
thank You for that eraser.”
God is much
better at forgiviNg
thaN we
are at siNNiNg!
Eugene Peterson, the pastor who
produced The Message, a contemporary
language version of the Bible,
observed that “God is much better
at forgiving than we are at sinning.”
Even when we think that we have
absolutely gone too far, that we’ve
really done it this time, or that what
we have done is totally unforgivable,
God stands waiting for us with open
arms. No matter how “good” we
have been at sinning, He is much
better at forgiving. No matter what
we’ve done (or failed to do), it’s
never too bad to be forgiven ... and
to be erased!
can begin anew each day.
There’s a beautiful old hymn called,
“An Evening Prayer,” that captures
the idea of asking God to erase the
blackboard of our lives at the end of
each day. It says:
If I have wounded any
soul today,
If I have caused one foot to
go astray,
If I have walked in my own
willful way,
Dear Lord, forgive.
Forgive the sins I have
confessed to Thee,
Forgive the secret sins I
do not see,
O guide me, love me, and
my keeper be,
Dear Lord, Amen.
Recently, I was witnessing to an