Heavenly Father, open the eyes of our hearts making us willing to surrender ourselves and allow you to release us from pain. As we move beyond awareness, discovery and ownership to explore forgiveness reveal to us resentments, offenses and bitterroots that are holding us captive and preventing us from experiencing peace, joy and freedom. Make our hearts willing to surrender the WHYs of our hurts to you - the one WHO heals. Amen.
If you seek encouragement as we explore forgiveness, below are links to some great songs https://www.youtube.com/watch?
I am blessed to be part of a small group which is exploring Freeway - a not so perfect guide to freedom by Mike Foster @peopleofthesecondchance.org.
It was my privilege to lead this week and I felt confident that I could by God's grace and the nudging of the Holy Spirit. I even shared scripture verses which might offer encouragement in the context of forgiveness with God, others and ourselves.
1) Have you accepted God's forgiveness?
"God puts people right through their faith in Jesus Christ. God does this to all who believe in Christ, because there is no difference at all: everyone has sinned and is far away from God's saving presence." Romans 3:22-23
2) Have you forgiven others who have hurt you?
"Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." Romans 12:17-18
3) Have you forgiven yourself?
" Come, let's talk it over, says the Lord. no matter how deep the stain of your sins, I can take it out and make you as clean as freshly fallen snow." Isaiah 1:18
This last one is a struggle for me. Even though, I recently used this scripture to demonstrate God's character in my blog questioning if it is biblical to forgive and forget, I must admit that the hardest person to forgive is myself.
Why?
The need to punish myself...beat myself up over something because I believe I am not worthy or good enough. To counter this, I can choose to confess it out loud, reject the lie and identify God's truth!
The need to blame someone...false sense of responsibility, false guilt and condemnation again believing the lie of the enemy over the the truth of God's word.
And the need to be better than others - although this is not necessarily a conscious action it is a form of pride! As soon as we set different standards or expectations for ourselves we have succumb to pride. (for more on this check out http://www.allaboutgod.com/forgiving-yourself.htm)
So now that I am aware of this, have discovered this and want to take responsibility for this how do I go about it? Surrender it to God, offer him a willing heart then in an act of obedience I can choose to
1) Recognize the offense
2) Confess the offense to God
3) Make amends for the offense as appropriate
4) Repent from the offense
5) Forgive myself for the offense and move on
May you be richly blessed as you continue on your journey to freedom.
