An epiphany!

On the 19th April I wrote this:

I know my salvation is secure, no matter what - when I die I am going to heaven. However, I strive earnestly (calling on God's help) to live a God honouring life day to day. When I mess up, as we all inevitably do (and as Joseph is here), I often worry about the possible consequences of my mistakes bringing everything crashing down around me. I still don't fully have peace about God not only forgiving us, but protecting us from the possible worst case scenario consequences of our actions. For example, Joseph was out of line here, being deceitful and certainly not Godly, but God didn't bring his whole kingdom falling down around him. I think it probably has something to do with God looking at the heart, but I don't have any clear answer. Much of the Bible talks about the consequences of our sin, but if everything we did wrong was punished in a worse case scenario sort of way, surely no-one would live in victory? Perhaps it's the heart that counts: if you are trying to do the right thing and mess up, God forgives and covers you from getting into trouble? But then what happens when you stop doing something you know was wrong: will God protect you from the consequences of it? Let me try and think of a good example: I download films, which is illegal. Let's say I stop because I am convicted it was wrong: will God protect me from the consequences of the copyright owners finding and prosecuting me?

Well today I had an epiphany and feel like God gave me the answer. In Psalm 103 it says:

The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
Slow to anger, abounding in love.
He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbour his anger forever;
he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavesn are aabout the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion on his children
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;
for he knows how we are formed
he remembers that we are dust (Psalm 103 8-15)

All I can say is WOW! This, to me, proves that God will cover up the possible consequences of our sin if our hearts are right, and that just blows me away! It's not a license to sin, because then our hearts wouldn't be right and he would let us fall (possibly), but if we are right inside, then he will protect us from the consequences of our sins being discovered! You don't know how much that means to me right now!