“We must Forgive Ourselves”

1 John 1:9 (NIV)

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

As believers we still must deal with the sins, we commit to renew our fellowship with God by confessing our sins. 1 John 1:9 tells us that God will forgive us our sins. It is good news for us! My first Sunday School lesson I ever taught was “Walking in a constant state of repentance”. Once we confess our sins, we need to change our ways. When we repent of our sins we agree with God and changing our ways back to walking in fellowship with God.

Have you ever come to the Lord in repentance, confessing your wrongdoing, and yet still felt guilty? Sometimes the problem is that we can’t forgive ourselves. Nothing is beyond God’s forgiveness. No sin is too great or too awful for God to forgive. Then we must do the difficult job of forgiving ourselves.

According to the Bible, our Father freely bestows forgiveness based on His Son’s payment of our sin debt—and has removed our transgression “as far as the east is from the west” Is our refusal to forgive ourselves a way of saying we consider Christ’s sacrifice insufficient? In other words, is our standard of righteousness higher than the Lord’s?

Psalm 103:12 (NIV)

12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

Forgiveness