Forgive yourself Week 2, 2014

Have you messed up? Betrayed a divine or human trust? Have you discovered that by your own carelessness people have been made to suffer; those you had pledged to care for? It pains.

Have you yielded to lust, and the aftermath (as always) is filled with shame and disgrace? Are those who looked at you with respect now scorning you? Did greed overtake you and leave you in the spotlight, caught and disgraced? Forgive yourself.

You cannot turn the clock back, nor can the punishment you seek to inflict on yourself wipe out your sin. What’s done is done; be done with them. O yes, the idea of punishing yourself for the offence sounds attractive. It may seem a means of saying you are sorry; but it is needless. It is futile. These rules may seem to be wise as part of a made-up religion in which people pretend to be humble and punish their bodies. But they don't help people stop doing the evil that the sinful self wants to do. Col 2:23(GNB) 

Do something better than punish yourself; no self punishment is ever enough to remove sin. A refusal to forgive one’s self tends to suicide. Judas did not seek God’s forgiveness, and did not forgive himself either. He is no example to follow.

Do better than inflict pain on yourself: the wound of the conscience is enough. Go to the Lord in repentance. Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me. Mic 7:8(KJV) 

The flesh would have you say about sin “it doesn’t matter, what have I done more than others?” It is also the sinful nature that wants you to punish yourself and do penance. Yes, penance can be the result of refusing to forgive one self.

But God forgives you as you turn to him this year with tears of heartfelt repentance. "Well, then," Jesus said, "I do not condemn you either. Go, but do not sin again."Jn 8:11(GNB) 

Do better than inflict pain on yourself: prove to Satan and the world you can lick them up through Jesus. Pick yourself from the dust; get back to your Maker, the lover of your soul. Therefore, strengthen your tired arms and your weak knees, and straighten the paths of your life, so that your lameness may not become worse, but instead may be healed Heb 12:12, 13(ISV). Peter had to forgive himself and faced the same Sanhedrin victoriously. John Mark proved his worth in ministry to the same Paul the apostle. Receive cleansing and strength: you will yet see the victory of Jesus in your life and ministry.

To continue to pine away is to turn chicken. Receiving God’s pardon and forgiving yourself and then returning into the battle is to prove yourself a man.