Have you ever felt poor and  needy before God? …so much so that you hesitated even t0 pray?

What a distress! The One you need most you feel least like going to.

Have you lost confidence that God will hear, forgive and change things? How is your spiritual report card? Do you have a failure record? Are there deep, deep needs?

In Psalm 86 David breaks through the barrier of no-confidence. Though he is “poor and needy” he strongly petitions God to hear his cry.  Faith rises as he exclaims, “You, Lord, are good and ready to forgive, abounding in love to all who call to you,” vs. 5.

Reciting the goodness of God strengthens us against despair. Especially fasten your attention upon the three words there in verse 5, “ready to forgive.” God is ready to forgive.

Meditate carefully upon the truth: God is ready to forgive you. What marvelous insights rise to our minds from this Bible truth! Let us notice three of these insights.

I. CALVARY SATISFIES GOD

 When we say that God is ready to forgive, we need to sharpen our understanding of the term “forgiveness.” It means to be acquitted, to be declared right. Once God forgives, nothing any longer separates us from His full blessing.

We are all too familiar with that imperfect, human kind of forgiveness where we are left still feeling shut out and ostracised. It’s the old cry, “I can forgive, but I can’t forget.” That is not real forgiveness. Indeed, God threatens judgment “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart,” Matthew 18:35.

This means that God is ready to forgive in the full sense. Once men have turned to Jesus Christ as our Savior, God promises, “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more,” Hebrews 10:17.

But wait a moment! How can the holiness of God and the wickedness of sinners ever get together in peace? How is it that God is prepared and ready to forgive?

Friends, it is because of the greatness of Christ’s offering on Calvary. “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness,” Hebrews 9:22. Christ’s sacrifice of His Own blood is enough to satisfy the demands of God’s justice.

He is ready to forgive.

Nothing else has to be done. The welcome mat is out for you to approach God and be forgiven.

This is what I John 1:9 means when it teaches that God is “just to forgive.” God may now be just and holy and still freely forgive sinners, because Jesus substituted for us and received in His body full payment for our sins against God.

God is ready to forgive you.

II.  GOD ACTUALLY DESIRES TO FORGIVE

Let us now go further with this truth, God is ready to forgive. It implies more than the cold fact that certain preparations have been made toward our forgiveness. We are taught that God is inclined toward us with a look of forgiveness.

The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ wants to forgive us.

Look at the cross for a moment. Envision the suffering Savior. In this light now hear the words of our text, “ready to forgive.” Read John 3:16.

Still further, the Father loves the Son and will not neglect to fulfill the purpose of this bloody death. The Father will forgive for Christ’s sake.

I read the story of a painting depicting King James II crushing the Duke of Monmouth. The Duke had dared to rebel and was captured. Crawling on hands and knees to the king, he is shown with his head lowered to the floor, eyes swollen from weeping and waiting. But the proud James crushes him in contempt.

Not so with our King! We, too, rebelled against our God, then we look up to His face, longing, hoping. See! His eyes fill with tears of mercy. His blood has been shed. He whispers, “I am ready to forgive.” That is God’s word to you.

III. OUR REBELLION KEEPS US UNRECONCILED TO GOD

How this text finds us out! If God is ready to forgive, then why are we not forgiven and walking in loving peace with our God?

It is because we are not ready to be forgiven. Our eyes are the dry ones.

You see, the unforgiven man is a resisting man, for God is ready to forgive. God’s mercy is crowding in upon us. God has given His Son in death for us and now declares to you and me, I am ready to forgive.

Blind pride, unbelief, sinful desires, rebellion keep men resisting, hesitating to believe God when He says that He is ready to forgive. This holding back is a great affront to God. Perhaps it is a worse sin than the others which burden our hearts with guilt feelings.

Read the latter part of Psalm 86:5. He is “plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon Him.” Do that right now. Whisper your prayer of confession to God and claim all that Jesus bought for you at such great price. God is ready to forgive.