How about Forgiving Yourself

None of us are perfect. Trying to live like we are perfect is an unreachable goal. We fall down and get up. We skin our knees with our sins. We ask for forgiveness, receive it and go on again.

Yet, many people return to their sins. They look at them as if they are incurable diseases which cause permanent deformity. They languish over what their lives could have been if they had not committed these sins.

Some of these sins are substantial in the eyes of those of this world who will judge them. They have committed adultery, lied, stolen, murdered as they violated the rest of the Ten Commandments. Others sins caused their divorces, lost the trust of their children, caused them to be despised by their former friends or left them lonely. They wish they could take it all back but that is just not possible. You simply cannot undo any act you have ever committed.

 The forgiveness of Christ seemed too good to be true. It is more good than they ever deserved but it still is true. They accepted Christ's forgiveness but they have failed to forgive themselves. They act as if the blood of Jesus is just not enough.

If you are a believer with sins that haunt you, please take this into account: Your sins are not justified by your actions but by the blood of Jesus. Your lack of forgiving yourself is a great indicator that you do not know the extent of the cross. The highest authority in the universe is God Almighty. He has accepted Jesus blood as the required payment for your sins. Your refusal to accept that price means that you do not count Jesus' blood to be worth as much as your sins. You are wishing that your sins never happened. This is an impossible wish. You must instead realize that God has made your sins count for nothing in condemnation through the blood of Jesus. You must claim His forgiveness and know that this is the only forgiveness that counts because you are not God and have no right to condemn. You must tell yourself that you are forgiven until you believe it.

The fact is that the lack of forgiveness sounds more like the devil than like the Lord. The devil is unforgiven because he will never repent. The Lord accepts those who repent and never holds their sins against them.

So say it: "I am forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ!"

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (NIV) ⁹ Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders ¹⁰ nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.