“Even before the world was made, God had already chosen us to be his through our union with Christ, so that we would be holy and without fault before him.” (Ephesians 1:4 GNT)
So many people live with regrets and the unresolved pain of personal moral failure. Guilt over letting themselves down and hurting others they care about. Some psychologists feel unresolved guilt is one of the leading causes of emotional illness.
We want relationships that work. Yet we blow them up.
We want respect yet we fall short of our ideals.
We hide the pain but it still resides. We cover it up with activity. Yet in the down times we face it again.
We say, “Well, I’m not any worse than a lot of others.” And you know, that’s true. But the guilt still eats away at us.
Yet, there’s an answer. God provided a way that he designed from before creation. He isn’t surprised by our failures. He saw them before we made them.
So he gives us a way to find the peace that we can never give ourselves. We simply ask him for forgiveness and then accept it.
I’ve discovered personally that peace from knowing God has forgiven me. In fact he not only has forgiven my failures he’s even forgotten all about them.
So that releases me to forgive myself. If God has forgotten them why would I hold on and keep reliving them?
And when I’ve forgiven myself it helps me to forgive those who’ve hurt me. I realize they’ve failed just as I have. And it gives me love to reconcile with those I care about.
Sometimes our greatest insights happen in our greatest failures.
When have you felt God’s forgiveness? How did it set your free?
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