Romans 1:7
To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints.
We'll be continuing in our journey through the book of Romans, tonight at Vineyard Recovery. We have finished Chapter 1 and are moving into the second chapter which takes us to forgiveness and judging others. By the way, sometimes I think judging others is the fan favorite of people everywhere.
If ever there were two stumbling blocks to recovery, these two are the big guns.
Forgiveness of others as well as ourselves is huge. In fact, what I see with people who are trying to break free of addiction is that they truly believe that God can forgiven them, but that they cannot forgive themselves. The mind set to not forgive yourself only creates the feelings of guilt and shame. Those two emotions are what I refer to as the toxic twins. Not being able to forgive yourself is a sign that a person feels like they deserve to be punished. How wrong is that? This is where the beauty of the Gospel comes into play.
It's the Grace thing.
It's God's mercy.
It's the love of the Father.
It's His willingness to wipe the sin slate clean and pour out huge buckets of grace over you. (Don't take that and make a bucket theology. Bucket was the first thing that came to my mind. For all I know it could be Tupperware containers). No matter....we need to understand that the grace of God enables me to forgive myself.
Forgiving myself means that I am breaking with my past...what I have done...people I have hurt. That enables me to deal with the issues that are a part of my past and, at the same time, move on into my future.
I have written this before, but here is my definition of grace:
The empowering presence of God in my life that enables me to be who I was created to be, and to do what I have been called to do.
It takes God's empowering presence in me to see that I can forgive myself. This isn't a mental exercise that if you think long and hard it will happen. It is a "knowing" ....an exercise of our faith that God is who He claims to be and will do what He claims He will do.
I can forgive myself, because that is what He desires of me.
To those who have made the claim that they believe God could forgive them but they could never forgive themselves....basically what has been said is this: "I have more power than God does. I know myself better than God knows me."
My Bible has an incredible offer to those who struggle with such things.
Matthew 11:28 - "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." What could possibly be more burdensome.....what could require more work that someone who could not forgive themselves. Carrying around the baggage of past behaviors and hurts. Such a life has no future not matter how hard or bad they desire one.
It is time to break free from the past and move ahead.
Hopefully I'll see you tonight at Vineyard Recovery.
God on you...
mb
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