God is not frustrated with you, waiting to vent.

He doesn’t have mountains of pent up anger and frustration. If you come to him, he doesn’t need to unload on you before you can both be square.

Other people in your life are like that. And—at least to some extent—you are like that.

Human beings feel the need to “get even.”

We feel this way, because we have a sickness inside us that believes all relationships work by balancing scales. So, when others owe us, we want to get our pound of flesh. And that feeling of owing them sits on us like a sickening dread.

But God isn’t a human being.

He became one. But not to get even. He became a human being to die the death you and I deserve, so that we can be sure every issue has been settled already.

That sense of dread we have about things we do wrong is because there is a legal case against us, that we all instinctively feel.

But you don’t need to do anything to absolve that legal case—God did it all for you already in Jesus Christ.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)

He wants you to know that. To enjoy it. To have the assurance that he’s not waiting to vent against you. He doesn’t want to humiliate you, but to give you confidence he feels only good and positive toward you, and that you are forgiven.

That forgiveness Jesus won for you on the cross is yours. You receive assurance of it simply as God speaks to you—to tell you he’s forgiven you, and promise to always be good to you.

God has put this word of promise in an unmistakable public place, where you know you can always hear it—the church.

Our church meets in person in Manchester every Sunday.

And if you can’t be with us physically, we meet online from anywhere every Wednesday.

Come and meet with us as we receive God’s forgiveness. Because he is not waiting to vent, but to forgive.