Fourth Thursday in Lent Devotion

Peace of Conscience.                                     Fourth Thursday in Lent - March 11, 2021

¹² as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

 (Psalm 103:12)

LSB 440 – Jesus, Will I Ponder Now

(Verse 5 of this week’s hymn served as inspiration for today’s devotion.)

Guilt and regret are horrible tormentors.    We all have done things that we are not proud of.  Sometimes these past sins can literally keep us up at night.  We lie awake, staring at the ceiling and thinking about all of the sins that we have committed and all the good we have failed to do. 

Martin Luther, before his so-called “tower experience,” took such feelings to the extreme.  He would torture and beat himself over his sins.  He would try to enumerate every single one of his sins so that he could confess them and even after doing all that he didn’t feel that he could be forgiven. 

Luther, in one sense, was right to be distraught.  In a way, we do have reason to lose sleep.  There is no way to remember and enumerate all of our sins.  There is no way to torture or beat ourselves into being better people.  Nothing we can do will ever be enough to rid ourselves of the guilt and regret that plague us. 

But as the Psalmist reminds us, “as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.” Jesus came to bring peace between us and God, peace between people, and even peace of conscience.  And He delivered that peace at the cross.  At the cross, He paid the price in full for our sins and won us forgiveness.

When the tormentor’s guilt and regret remind us of all of our failures, we look to the cross.  There we are reminded of the forgiveness that Jesus won for us.

Prayer

Dear Lord, there are times when all I see is my sin and failure to be your child.  Help me to see the forgiveness that you won for me at the cross. Show me how to live in the Peace that you delivered to us. In Jesus Name, Amen. 

Rev. Matthew D. Roeglin – Blessed Savior Lutheran Church