by Rick Warren at PurposeDriven.com“Look straight ahead with honest confidence; don't hang your head in shame” (Proverbs 4:25 TEV).
You don't need to walk around carrying a load of guilt. The Apostle Paul says, “Yes, all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious ideal; yet now God declares us ‘not guilty’ of offending him if we trust in Jesus Christ, who in his kindness freely takes away our sins” (Romans 3:23-24 TLB).
God wants to forgive you. Imagine a giant blackboard with all of your sins written across it and God comes along with a giant eraser and erases it all. It's like an etch-a-sketch. You turn it upside down and shake it, turn it back up and the slate is clean. That's good news, isn't it?
But we need to accept God's forgiveness. We may know about God's forgiveness intellectually, but to believe it, deep down inside, accepting, in faith, that it is true. Because it is!
And one thing that often blocks us from accepting forgiveness from God is that we are unable to forgive ourselves. You need to forgive yourself for your past failures and sins, for the habits and hang-ups that led you to sin. Forgive yourself!
God wants you to forgive yourself. He teaches us to “Look straight ahead with honest confidence; don't hang your head in shame” (Proverbs 4:25 TEV).
Have you ever committed a sin and asked God to forgive you, and even though you know He's forgiven you, you still feel lousy? What do you do in that situation? Do you go back and ask Him to forgive you again? Confess it again, over and over?
No. You only have to confess a sin one time and it's forgiven. But you may have to forgive yourself a hundred times and say it over and over until it sinks in: "God's forgiven me. It's over.”
Our problem is, we want to keep reminding God of things He's already forgotten. It's forgiven and forgotten. You've already dealt with it. Someone once asked Eleanor Roosevelt, "How did you accomplish so much with your life?" She said, "I never waste time with regrets."
Don’t waste time with your regrets: accept God's forgiveness and forgive yourself.
You can learn more about what God wants for you by reading The Purpose Driven Life.
With the same faith we believe Jesus Christ died for us, we must believe our sins are washed away. Because of the Blood, we can come boldly before the Throne of Grace, God, anytime. He only sees the Blood, the Righteousness of Jesus Christ. Our memories, intellect, and the enemy of our soul, want to keep reminding us of what we have done. And it's OK to remember, but we must also know, each time, that what we have done is remembered no more by the Lover of our soul.
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