"God remembers our sins no more.”
- Hebrews 8: 12
Sometimes it is easier to
forgive others than it is to forgive our self. However, the same principles in
God's Word concerning our responsibility to forgive others, also applies to
forgiving our self. As humans, no one is perfect. We all make mistakes. You can
eliminate self-rejection by reminding yourself that even in your failures God
forgave you 2000 years ago. He took from you the burden of guilt for your
actions and nailed it to the cross, because He already knew about and forgave
you for what you have done. If God can forgive us, how can we do any less?
Sometimes, we even hold grudges against our self for our past disappointments, failures and mistakes. God holds no grudges. His steadfast love never ceases, His mercy never ends; in fact, it is new every single morning (Lamentations 3: 22-23). He casts the memory of our offenses as far away as the east is from the west (Psalms 103:12). Think about that...when you travel east around the globe, there is never a point that you start traveling west. The east never meets the west. God gives us endless forgiveness (Hebrews 8: 12). If we confess our sins, he is faithful to forgive us every time. He will do one better than that! He will also sanctify and purify us from all unholy behavior, if we will let Him (1 John 1:9). As we accept Christ's sacrifice for our sins, we can let go of our anger against our self and forgive our self.
There is no way that we can truly love others if we do not first love God and then our self. Luke 10: 27 admonishes us, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’” God calls us to let go of our need to make an effort or to do penance to make up for our past offenses. Jesus already took care of the penalty for us on Calvary's cross (Acts 13:38). If you need to ask someone's forgiveness, or make amends for something you have done, now would be a good time to do that (Matthew 6:12). But even if they will not forgive you, God already forgave you, and Jesus shed His blood to guarantee your forgiveness. If God cares enough to forgive you, then you can forgive yourself too.
If you refuse to forgive yourself, then there are negative consequences ~
stress, inner turmoil, panic attacks, loss of sleep, irritability, chronic
physical illnesses, anger, feeling overwhelmed and having strained
relationships with others. If you do not forgive your self, you run the risk of
more unresolved hurt, pain and suffering from self-destructive behaviors. You
have guilt and remorse eating away at you from the inside out. Subconsciously,
you may even be seeking revenge and paybacks toward yourself in a way that you
are not even aware of. We have a putrefying wound that is never cured, until we
accept God’s healing in this area of our life.
Unresolved, unproductive and unnecessary anger, hatred and blaming of your self
are counterproductive. It is a trick of Satan to make us pessimistic and
negative. It stops our growth in our spiritual walk until we come to the place
of forgiving our self. These buried emotions may even make us defensive and
distant with other people. We carry our feelings on our shoulders and think
other people are talking about us or have an attitude toward us, when all along
we are the one sinning against our self. We live in constant fear of failure,
of making more mistakes or repeating old mistakes, of being rejected or of not
gaining the approval of others, when all along we are the one rejecting and
withholding approval from our self.
Sometimes, Satan discourages
me into thinking that I am too incompetent to help anyone else. I get
disheartened and I want to give up. Whenever this happens, God never fails to
send me reassurance through His Word or an encouraging remark from a friend or
even a stranger. His perfect plan will use all of my foibles to help someone
else in their time of need. Despite all of our failings, God gives us
overwhelming victory through Christ who loves us (Romans 8:37). Even if everyone else is fighting against us,
including our self, they shall not prevail. God is with us to deliver us in our
times of need (Jeremiah 1: 19). The Lord forgives us and we can forgive our self as
well as one another (Colossians 3:13).
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, we are so
blessed, because You forgave all of our transgressions and covered all of our
sins. You never count our sin against us again. On the cross, You paid the
penalty of the sins of the whole world once and for all (Romans
4:7-8). Now, we can forgive and comfort
those who sin against us, including our self, so that we will not be
overwhelmed by excessive sorrow (2 Corinthians 2:7). In You, we have redemption through Your blood. You forgive all of our
sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace (Ephesans 1:7). We realize that since You forgave us
unconditionally, we can follow Your example and forgive others and our self
unconditionally as well.
Thought
for the Day:
And when you stand praying,
if you hold anything against anyone (even yourself), forgive him/her (and
yourself), so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins." - Mark 11:25 