Embracing forgiveness

Time and time again, we read of God’s boundless grace & mercy. We know that because of Christ, we are safe from all condemnation of our sins, as if they had not been committed at all. God deliberately remove them so that they cannot affect us any more; so that we need not feel guilty for our past sins. Yet, we all struggle at times to accept His forgiveness. Deep within our hearts we struggle to forgive ourselves even thought we believe that we have total forgiveness for our sins in Jesus Christ.

I don’t know about you, but I know I struggle a lot with self-forgiveness. Guilt is truly a strong emotion that if we’re not careful, we can allow it to outshine the great, or u can say gargantuan, gift of pardon and restoration that God freely provides. His mercy & grace is so great that there are no boundaries at all, infinite. However, we tend to think that our past actions are so terrible that God cannot forgive us, and that is, as a matter of fact, a tragic error.

It is also possible that sometimes we get so blinded by the outcome of our sins that the feeling of guilt stays alive in our minds. The negative consequences we bear as a result of our mistakes prevent us from fully understanding and receiving the miracle of divine forgiveness. The miracle of God’s forgiveness is that, with His help, we can be forgiven even though we still remember our past sins. Forgetting should probably never be a test of whether our sins are forgiven since lessons from our past sins are to be remembered.

Each of us is a valuable child of His. We mean the world to Him. We are deeply loved and precious to Him. That’s why we have the liberty of grace; the liberty of His glory; the freedom from fears of condemnation and guilt. He doesn’t want us to be haunted by insults or the damning effects of our sins. Neither does He want us to look down on ourselves and feel unworthy. What He wants is for us to bear in mind that our value doesn’t spring from our own feelings, but from His. He says that we are valuable and that should be enough. This is the truth.