The Hardest One to Forgive

It’s a wonderful truth of the bible that God forgives all those who truly acknowledge sin, repent of their wrongful beliefs, attitudes and behaviours, and accept Jesus as the One who’s paid the cost of sin by His death on the cross.

I was recently with my friend Stein, and he was teaching about forgiveness at an Ellel Ministries meeting in Finland. He felt, in this particular session, that it was important to concentrate on what can sometimes be the hardest aspect of forgiveness, the problem of forgiving ourselves.

He asked two of the team to stand one on either side of him, at a short distance away, the one representing Jesus, and the other representing the enemy. Stein then moved and stood a little beyond the one who represented the enemy and he explained that when we fail to forgive ourselves, even when God has forgiven us, we place the enemy and his condemnation between ourselves and the grace of God which is in Jesus. The visual demonstration of this truth was surprisingly shocking.

Stein then moved and stood a little beyond the person representing Jesus, and we saw, with a remarkable sense of relief, that, when we were in that place with Jesus, the taunts of the enemy could be withstood and rebuked by the One who has made possible God’s liberating forgiveness.

It was so simple and so amazingly clear as to where we each need to position ourselves when seeking to deal with the painful sin issues of our lives. To fully receive the pardon of God, we must stand in complete agreement with, and in the powerful protection of, Jesus our Saviour.

Prayer: Father, when I come to You to receive forgiveness give me the determination to forgive myself and stand firmly in the amazing grace of God. Amen.