Forgiveness

Forgiveness

      I have talked about many things over the last year, grace, mercy, faith, righteousness and joy to name a few, but I neglected to include one thing. It is this one thing that I want to start my year out with, it is what I want have in my heart every moment of every day and it is an attitude that I want to develop throughout the course of this year.

      And it is forgiveness.

      Not a new concept, by far, but I am going to take a different approach to it. I love throwing out little twists when God reveals them to me. This one was a real challenge to me, and I had to reflect on it a lot. I looked back over the last year, and the years before that. I am sure all of you think that you know where I am going with this, and if after you are finished reading this you were right, I am happy that you realized it sooner than I did.

      What I had to look back on was not about forgiving others and what they had done to me, yes this is still important, and something to write about later on, God told me to look back at all the times that I refused to forgive myself.

      

      Some people may not think this is important, but I believe it is a key concept in our Christian walk.

      If you cannot forgive yourself, how can you be fully forgiven?

      Let me explain a little bit because I can see the perplexed looks on some of your faces.

I heard this story once about a man, who was sentenced to hang, and the President offered him a pardon but the man refused and was hanged. The courts deemed that in order for a pardon to be valid it must be accepted.

      The same works with us, I believe. Yes God forgives us if we ask it of Him, but if you do not mean it, and you do not accept the forgiveness that is given to you, you do not have full forgiveness. And I say full forgiveness with a cause, God will always forgive you so long as you bring it to Him and lay it at His feet, but your forgiveness will only be full once you validate it with yourself. If you do not forgive yourself for what you have done wrong, you will walk around life with a chip on your shoulder, and a cloud looming over you. The worst part is, is that you only have yourself to blame.

      Look back at your life at all the times where you asked for forgiveness, either from God, a friend, or a loved one, and then figure out if you ever forgave yourself for what you did wrong in that situation. It is a weight that will weigh you down until you LET IT GO!

      Don’t withhold that awesome blessing that God has given to you, and that He gives you each and every day. God forgave you, He loves you and always will, accept the forgiveness that has been given to you and forgive yourself. 

      And with a new year I offer a new blessing:

      Forgive, forget, and let God's will reign in your life!