I have grown up in church. This line is nothing new to me. Even when I peaced out from God when I was in middle school I still knew this to be a truth in my life. So what is the big deal?
While I know that God forgives our sins, I don’t always remember or act like I am forgiven. Often times I ask forgiveness over and over again for the same sins. There are things in my past that I feel guilty about. That guilt rears its ugly head and can paralyze me from doing what I am called to do. I feel ashamed to go to God, and sometimes that is the only excuse I need to avoid him.
The thing is, I don’t need to do this. I mean, Jesus didn’t die and come back again so I can ask for forgiveness for the same thing time after time. Maybe it’s not God I need to ask forgiveness from. Maybe I need to forgive myself. God has already fulfilled that desire for forgiveness. He knows what I’ve done, but when he looks at me he doesn’t see what I’ve done. He sees what Jesus has done for me.
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43:18-19
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17
It’s time for me to stop focusing on the past. God is doing a new thing and if I spend my life looking backwards I will never see the beauty in front of me. It’s time to start acting like a new creation. So instead I ask God to forgive my inability to forgive myself and ask him to focus my attention forward since that is where I am going.
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