Forgiving Yourself 2 Corinthians 5:17, Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. Can you honestly look in the mirror and tell yourself, I love you and mean it with your heart? Im not talking about a prideful way, but a humble means of accepting who God has formed in you. We need to love and accept the person that Christ has made in us, and forgive ourselves as Christ has forgiven us! The importance of forgiving yourself When you look inside, you hate yourself, you could kick yourself over and over for your past failures and choices. Youve came to Jesus and repented, but you havent really accepted the truth about what Jesus has done for you yet. You still feel ashamed and guilty over your past and you keep holding it against yourself. The way you see yourself is not an accurate picture of what Christ has done for you. It is basically denying the work that Jesus accomplished for you on the cross! If your sins are forgiven, then you need to see yourself as separated from your sins... but no, the enemy will try diligently to remind you of your past and continue to beat you up over sins that were supposed to be nailed to the cross. You are wrapped up in guilt and condemnation my friend... and you NEED to forgive yourself. You can go through deliverance, but if you dont forgive yourself for the mistakes youve made, you wont experience the breakthrough that you need to be totally set free. When the recipient of a gift receives it gladly and with joy, the giver is glorified. But when the recipient receives the gift, but ignores it, the giver is mocked, belittled and feels unappreciated. When we fail to forgive ourselves, we are like a child who is given a trip to Disney World for Christmas, yet he keeps complaining that he cant go... even after his parents have already packed the car and are waiting on him to get in! How would would you feel if you were that childs parents? Wouldnt you feel sick inside, knowing that you spend all that money on this trip, the tickets, the hotel reservations, etc., and your son refuses to go because he doesnt believe that what you gave him was real? Think how your heavenly Father feels when He looks down and sees His children walking around beating themselves up over things that He shed His blood so that they could be forgiven and set free from? I believe it is clear that failing to forgive ourselves from our past mistakes is denying the work of the cross and the shed Blood of Christ in our live. When Gods Word tells us that weve been washed clean with the Blood of Christ, and our sins are removed through the atoning work that Jesus did for us... yet we still could kick ourselves for our mistakes, then we are basically saying, I dont care what the Blood of Jesus has done, I still hate myself for what Ive done! Its staging to think such a thing, but that is what really happens when we refuse to forgive ourselves. If you dont see yourself as a new creature in Christ, then you have a serious problem. You will be hindered and held back from freely and confidently living out who you really are in Christ! You will be hesitant and feel unworthy to approach your Heavenly Father, because you feel youre a failure and unworthy... this is why it is vital for your conscience to be cleansed of dead works (your past failures)... Hebrews 9:14, How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Failing to forgive yourself will put blinders on your spiritual eyesight quickly. It will cause you to see things through the eyes of guilt, shame and condemnation. It will ruin your faith, and cause you to go blind spiritually: 2 Peter 1:9, But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. In the following verse, we are told to forgive one another, but did you know that the root word for the phrase one another actually includes yourself? The Greek root word Heautou refers not only to others, but also to ourselves! Colossians 3:13, Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. Unforgiven is a known door opener to torment from demonic spirits. Matthew 18:23-35 tells us how the unforgiving person is turned over into the hands of tormenters (that is, tormenting spirits). If we are unforgiving towards yourself, we open that door for tormenting spirits to come against us because we are not really accepting the work that Christ did for us on the cross. Another key to the demonic is bitterness, and when we become bitter with ourselves, we become defiled spiritually: Hebrews 12:15, Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. Gods Word tells us that Jesus purged (that is, removed) our sin (Hebrews 1:3, ...when he had by himself purged our sins...), but if we fail to forgive ourselves, we are in essence, calling Gods Word a liar! We are saying, I hate myself because I did that sin... I wont forgive myself of it! when Gods Word tells us that the sin has been PURGED or REMOVED from us... who are we to say that it is still part of our past? We are in essence, calling Gods Word a LIE! I cant tell you how important it is to realize that when the recipient of a gift (you and I) receives a gift (of Jesus shed blood for the forgiveness of our sins) with joy and enjoys it to the fullness, the giver of that gift (that is Jesus) is glorified! Failing to forgive ourselves is denying or rejecting the gift of God and brings no glory (actually dishonor and humiliation) to what Jesus did for us.
Posted on: Sun, 18 May 2014 13:01:45 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015