Forgiveness

Posted by admin on February 14, 2010

Through something that happen on the other day, in a situation where I had not totally realise I was like that, but through it God has taught me quite a lot about myself and other things.

We go through life thinking we are fine and that we can never grieve the Lord that we would not sin or do thing against God because we know how deep our relationship to him really means. They may be small the sins we have but they are still important to God, they are important to us too. Small sins at the time can seem as though they are huge we do things that we regret they may be small but do grieve God. We can be totally heart broken about what we have done. We may say we are sorry and ask for forgiveness but have we totally forgiven ourselves. We know in our mind that God forgives us of what we have done but that does not take away the pain and hurts that we place upon ourselves. We punish ourselves more than we deserve because God instantly forgives us as soon as we ask for his forgiveness.

I was looking on the Internet about forgiving ourselves and this is something I found which I could relate to it is by Dr Charles Stanley it says

There are basically 4 common problems that keep us in bondage to guilt

1. Belief in a performance based forgiveness which is when we are taught as a child that we should say sorry when we have done something wrong. Is what we achieve or receive is a result of our own action.

2. Disappointment in self – It can be difficult to forgive ourselves for not living up to our own expectations

3. Expectation of repeated sin- we think we will repeat the sin again so what is the point of asking for forgiveness.

4. Adjustment and surrender to guilt – guilt can be a comfortable part of our thinking and our identity.

I saw myself in the area of not forgiving myself in the area where I was disappointed with myself. How could I forgive myself when to me it was a big thing, I never really meant to do a thing I did, but I did and was so deeply ashamed of myself.

Every time I was on my own the thought would keep coming back to me you cannot be forgiven, you have really hurt that person, you may say your sorry but are you really, you will never change.

I knew that God has forgiven me but still could not really accept it for myself. I knew plenty of scriptures that God forgives us our sins but how could that be for me.

I thought I forgave myself but still the words you are not forgiven. While thinking on what I had done, the words broken hearted kept coming to mind. I was heartbroken that I could damage a relationship with a friend just by the words we say. I wanted to be free the hurt and pain I had deep inside me but I suppose I need to learn what it was like to feel as though I totally messed up. I cannot think of any other time when I felt so convicted of doing something as in this week. Even when I asked God into my life I the thought came back you are not forgiven, you cannot get a way with what you have done. I was reading later that evening the father’s love letter in a book by Jack Frost. This scripture jumped out at me, I felt it really spoke to me as I was feeling rather heartbroken and feeling guilty.

Psalm 34:18 says The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart and saves such as a contrite spirit.

I was so thankful that God was near me and that he came to save everyone who has a contrite spirit.

I then chose to study the words broken hearted and a contrite heart. These are scriptures I found related to being broken hearted and having a contrite heart.

In Psalm 147:3 says He heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds.

Isaiah 61:1 says the spirit of the sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.

We see from these scriptures that God has come to set us free from having a broken heart, that if we stay in God’s love and laws then we are free. God heals our hearts when they are broken. We have to choose whether we want to be released and freed from the pain that we have. God pours in his love into our lives which wipes out the hurt. His love is so powerful.

When we are broken hearted God is never far away he is actually right next to us, carrying us through, he never gives anything more than we can handle. We may be heartbroken but with God help we get through it.

The second part of psalm 34:18 says about having a contrite spirit and God saves those who have one.

Contrite – deeply repentant, feeling guilt. (dictionary)

Isaiah 57:15 For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, With him who has a contrite and humble spirit, To revive the spirit of the humble, And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

Isaiah 66:2 For all those things My hand has made, And all those things exist,” Says the LORD. “But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word.

So God saves/rescues those who have a contrite spirit. A person who is totally repentant of their actions God will save and deliver. So we need to repent of our action and God forgives us but we need to forgive ourselves. We don’t need to feel guilty any more as God took the punishment of our sin upon the cross when he died for us. The price was paid. God forgives us of all our sins, every little and big thing. God require us to come to him with a contrite heart knowing we have done wrong and it is only through him that we can be saved; our spirit is humbled in doing so. We learn to put our spirit and mind in tune with the way God wants us to live. It is only coming to God with a contrite and humble spirit that we can see revival in our lives then it flows from us to the people around us.

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