Choices and Forgiveness

There are things I've done that I can't undo.  There are choices I've made that I can't unmake.  There are roads I've traveled down that have no turn-around point.  I've made some good decisions but I've made some bad ones too.  

What about you?  Could you make some of these statements?  Is it sometimes difficult, especially in adulthood, to look back over your life and realize that some of the things that can't be changed are the things that haunt you the most?  So what can each of us do with the guilt, shame, disappointment or maybe even loathing, that we feel toward ourselves?  What can we do with the burden we've been carrying for so long?

Well, I'll tell you the answer.  In Matthew Jesus says: " Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."11:28  In I John the Bible says:  "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1:9  That is really pretty simple if you think about it.  Confess.  Tell Jesus.  And He will forgive us and cleanse us.  We don't have to carry those burdens any longer because once they are forgiven, they are gone.  "As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us." Psalm 103:12.  You can never get to the west by traveling east.  You just always keep going east.  So that means that our sins are so far removed from us that we will never have to ask to be forgiven for them again.  God is good that way.  And what really helps a sinner like me is to know that even when I mess up, make a bad choice, SIN, He will still forgive when I confess.  My part is easy.  Jesus did the hard work many years ago.

Sometimes though, even after we've asked and received forgiveness from our Father, we still can't forgive ourselves.  That is where I often find myself.  Struggling with the images that come into my mind, reminders of those long ago choices that were wrong.  That is when I really have to turn to God and ask, not for forgiveness for those same sins, but for forgiveness for not trusting His word, His promises enough.  If He is faithful and just as the Bible said, if He does remove our sins as far as the east is from the west, then I have to trust that.  I have to believe that.  I have to let it go.  I did it.  I confessed it.  He forgave it.  Its gone.

So if or when you have a time when you are reminded of your past bad decisions, remind yourself again of God's forgiveness.  Of His everlasting love.  Of the work He did on the cross.  If the One who made you can forgive you (and me) of your (our) horrific choices, surely you (and I) can forgive ourselves too.

2 Corinthians 5:17-18 King James Version (KJV)
 ¹⁷ Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

¹⁸ And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation