The Session:  Self Forgiveness 

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31)

What to Do When I Know God Forgives Me, but I Can’t Forgive Myself, by Becky Weber

I Know God Forgives Me, But I Can't Forgive Myself - Steps Forward

Interesting helps on self forgiveness

• Ephesians 2:8, “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.”
• The enemy wants us to believe that we are too far gone to be helped.
• It is oftentimes the hurt, shame and guilt that we feel that won’t let us forgive ourselves. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’[a] 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] There is no commandment greater than these.” 

Here Are 5 Truths about God’s SELF FORGIVENESS

1. It’s not about what we do.

• God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.” If our forgiveness is a gift from Jesus, we should be able to accept this wonderful thing that he did for us.(Eph. 2:8)
• 2. God’s forgiveness covers all of our sins. When God forgives us, it's not just for one thing that we have done, but for all past, present, and future sins. He doesn’t pick and choose. In 1 John 1:9, we learn this, “But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.”(I John:9)
• 3. There is no limit to God’s forgiveness. Peter denies Jesus three times. (Matthew 18 21-22)
• 4. God forgives us and doesn’t remember our sins. Even though our God is all-knowing, he chooses to not remember our sins. As it says in Hebrews 8:12, “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.”
• 5. Through Christ we are new creations.Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

Pay attention to your thoughts! We have thinking patterns in our minds that can be cyclical.

Helps For Forgiving Ourselves

• Practice thought-stopping and re-framing 

·         Pay attention to your thoughts! We have thinking patterns in our minds that can be cyclical. 

1. Stop and acknowledge the negative thought (i.e. “I am a failure. I deserve to to punished”)

2. Repent and Re-frame it (i.e. “I am genuinely sorry for my choices. God has already forgiven me! I accept Jesus as my Savior and believe in the Word of God. I choose to believe that if I repent and turn to God, my sins will be wiped out and I will experience His refreshing! (Acts 3:19)

To reach Tom Russell, go to https://www.heritagechristiancounselingofmansfield.com.