This morning I was thinking about what I wanted to write about. The topic of Forgiveness kept coming to mind. It is not one of my favorites, so I kind of brushed it off. But as I began reading, Ephesians 4:32 popped up. That’s a God-wink for you. So the next three days will be my thoughts on forgiveness. And these are definitely thoughts that I’m writing to myself. To remind myself. Please stay with me as I stumble through them.
My first point is that we must forgive ourselves. This might be the hardest type of forgiving for some of us to do. Many of us have tremendous guilt for the things that we have seen or done. I know I do. And I have had many veterans tell me the same thing. But we are called to serve our Lord and Savior. And to best do that, we must have a pure heart. Forgiving ourselves is one of the steps to make our hearts pure. In Matthew 5:8, we read “God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.”
Another part of this that’s important is the witness we provide to other people. When we forgive ourselves, others will see the relief we have for releasing that burden. The things we were holding onto are no longer be holding us down. We won’t forget those things. They are part of us. And we can learn from them. We can be stronger for going through those moments. But they don’t need to define us. They don’t need to keep us from feeling the grace we receive from God. They don’t need to keep our hearts from being pure. So today, let’s not let them. If you haven’t done so, forgive yourself. Release yourself. Let go of those things that are keeping you down. Pray to God to help you do so. He will. Because he loves you. Always has. Always will.
