Tuesday, Feb 27 - Day 14 of Lent
I’ve chosen to include this whole section from Isiah, as I think it is just so beautiful:
16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, 17 learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.
18 “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.
19 If you are willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land;
20 but if you refuse and rebel,
you shall be eaten by the sword;
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
One of the biggest problems I have, personally, is forgiving myself for my own sins. I sometimes will think about a memory of the past, by accident, and then spend a while dwelling on it; and as it becomes clearer and clearer, crisp and more vivid in my mind, I allow myself to get down and sometimes freak out about it. “What would people think if they found out what I said about that person that one time? What would people think if they knew that thing that I did five years ago?” (Intentionally vague examples.)
Well, the funny thing is, that in letting myself get worked up about my past sins, I am mentally voiding my own confessions. Even though I asked God to forgive my sins – with, at the time, full remorse and intention to not commit that sin again – I still choose to think about it, years or months later. This is wrong, and a habit that I wholeheartedly intend to shake.
Well, quite simply, if the Lord God, who is literally perfect and without sin, can forgive my sins, wipe my slate clean and allow me to start again whenever I choose, then literally WHO AM I to not forgive these sins myself? Do I have a right to lose sleep over sins that my God and Father has already forgiven? Do I have a right to get down about sins that Jesus has cast aside, fully and lovingly welcoming me into his arms again?
If you have asked Jesus for forgiveness, and He has forgiven you (which He did, if you meant it), then it should go without saying that you are also choosing to forgive yourself. God is the Father and creator of everything. He is all-powerful and all-knowing. We are His children and just as importantly, His servants. We ought to shake and forget the past, so that we might adequately and more heartily serve Him better. If you cling to hate or bitterness, you are clogging a space in your heart that is reserved for love. And you can therefore, not be the kind of Christian that you are called to be in the 21st century.
To sum up:
Forgive yourself. God did.
That’s right. GOD, THE FATHER OF ALL, FORGAVE YOU. You have a spot next to Him in Heaven, if you want it (which you should?)
So take a deep breath, swallow the past, and move on, so that you may become the brilliant and powerful witness that He is waiting for you to be.
