14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. ~ Matthew 6:14-15ESV
Sometimes it’s easy to say that this only has one meaning, forgive all people who have done you wrong. But what if that’s not the only purpose of this verse? When we sin, we are hurting ourselves. In fact, Paul even said in his letter to the Corinthians that the sin of sexual immorality is a sin against one’s own body.
Here’s what I’m getting at, if you can’t forgive yourself, how can God forgive you? There’re things in our past that we feel are too horrible for God to forgive. Sometimes we completely run the other direction away from God because we don’t feel good enough to be forgiven. Sometimes we come to God, but we don’t give Him everything, and the past just eats us up inside. According to Jesus, both of these lead to the same place. When we can’t forgive ourselves, we are now, in a sense, rejecting God’s forgiveness because we are now saying we know better than God. We’re saying that His blood can’t wash us clean. We’re saying He’s not all-powerful. We’re saying He’s not enough for us. We don’t mean to say these things but refusing to forgive ourselves is just that. It’s putting your past regrets above God’s love.
No one’s too dirty to be cleaned. No one’s too wretched to receive grace. And no one’s too wicked to be forgiven. God Almighty formed you in your mother’s womb. He knows everything about you, including the number of hairs on your head. He has a great plan for your life. Don’t let your past regrets keep you from the future He has planned for you.
Dear Heavenly Father, please forgive me for not forgiving myself. Please lift this heavy burden of shame and regret from my shoulders. Please show me who you see when you look at me. Show me who I am in You. Help me to not just know Scriptures of redemption and love but help me to believe them and put them into action. Help me to see and live in Your good and perfect will. In the name of Jesus, I pray, amen.
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