God says in His Word: ‘I – yes, I alone – will blot out your sins for my own sake and will never think of them again. Let us review the situation together, and you can present your case to prove your innocence’ (v.25-26 NLT). Today, if you’re condemning yourself because you think your sins are too big to deserve God’s grace, go back and reread those Scriptures carefully. God said He would forgive our sins for His own sake. What we need to do is ‘present [our] case to prove [our] innocence.’ Why do we have such a hard time accepting God’s forgiveness? Here are some possible answers: 1) Because in some cases we feel like we’re reaping what we have sown. 2) Because we have condemned someone else for doing the very thing we ourselves did. 3) Because we think God likes to keep us twisting in the wind for a while so we will think twice before committing the same sin again. 4) Because growing up, when we disobeyed our parents, they took away certain privileges until we had proven ourselves. 5) Because we think we have to be ‘worthy’ of God’s mercy. But when we refuse to forgive ourselves, we’re implying that our mistakes are beyond the scope of God’s grace. And that’s a bigger sin – pride! And here‘s another thought. When we always have ‘issues’ with other people, it may be that we’re looking for someone to offend us, so we can point to how bad the other person is and feel better about ourselves. When we adopt a humble attitude and work on forgiving ourselves because we know God has forgiven us, it’ll be much easier to forgive other people’s mistakes.

What Now?

If there’s anything, big or small, that you haven’t forgiven yourself for, know that God has already forgiven you. With that in mind, tell Him that you’re struggling to forgive yourself, and ask Him to give you a fresh awareness of His amazing love for you.