The Importance of Self Forgiveness

What does Jesus do when we make a mistake? How should we act when we experience the feeling of guilt and defeat that we foster sometimes after making a wrong or unwise choice?

 "To err is human" people may say. But how does our heavenly Father see us when we make mistakes?

Let's remember that our God is a present God. He does not sit on a distant throne, He is not arrogant or holds grudges, nor does He write down our faults in a notebook. On the contrary, his word teaches us that he knows how weak we are; he remembers we are only dust (psalm 1o3:1.4) Because of that, He has compassion on us. Moreover, Jesus himself in the flesh dwelt among us and experienced the same temptations common to the carnal nature. And even though He remained pure, He knows our imperfections, our deviations, our tendency to set Him aside when it comes to making choices.  It is also important to remember that God has woven us into our mother's womb. Therefore, He knows us more deeply than we will ever know ourselves.  Knowing us so thoroughly, He is always ready to forgive us.

 Even though we know His forgiveness is accessible and available, we often get caught up in the weight of our mistakes and fail to offer ourselves self-forgiveness. We let ourselves dwell on the past, fostering guilt and writhing in self-accusations.  By doing so, we drag the failure of yesterday into today, destroying our joy.  This emotional and spiritual torture is undoubtedly one of the most powerful weapons from the enemy of our souls.  He does not want us to remember that we are commanded through the word of God to forgive one another including our enemies and that this command applies to forgiving ourselves as well. If we are not able to forgive ourselves, how can we extend this forgiveness to others? How can we love as Jesus teaches us, if we are trapped in the bitterness of past mistakes?

The mercies of the Lord are new every morning. This biblical truth shows us that every day we have a chance to start over, thus having in our lives an inexhaustible source of opportunities to choose the right path and make the right decision. As God is merciful to us, so we should be merciful toward ourselves. But this self-forgiveness does not mean that we should remain in error or arrogantly consider it commonplace. No. It should compel us to recognize that in failure we learn valuable lessons. Learning through them and humbling ourselves, we will avoid falling into the same mistake again.

The question surfaces once again: What does Jesus do when we make mistakes?  The answer comes through a simple sequence of actions: He expects us first to recognize our mistakes, second to seek his forgiveness in faith and confession, third to stop making the same mistakes and finally to forgive ourselves without holding grudges against ourselves in our own hearts. This is a simple recipe for living to the fullest with God, with ourselves, and with our neighbor, thus extending the kingdom of God to this earthly plane. By doing so, we will not only be recipients of God's forgiveness, but also executors of  His forgiveness in the world.

Psalm 32:5: "I acknowledge my sin to you, and I have not hidden my iniquity; I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord'; and you have forgiven the guilt of my sin."