This post is adapted from a chapter in my book, Starting Over… finding God’s forgiveness when you find it hard to forgive yourself. This is from the chapter called: Stop punishing yourself.

Stop Punishing Yourself

WHY ARE WE SO QUICK to dwell on our failure? I think it’s because we feel the need to punish ourselves for what we’ve done. Rather than embrace God’s forgiveness and celebrate it, we embrace guilt as our cross to bear: our penalty for failing God.

We know we can’t make things right. We can’t undo our past or fix what’s broken. But maybe if we embrace guilt God will see our remorse and be pleased with us. We hope that embracing guilt will salve our regret and soften God’s judgment against us. That’s our solution…as bad as it is.

God’s Forgiveness is the Solution

But God has a better solution. He forgives us. I know that might sound simplistic; the apostle Paul put it like this:

God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. 2 Corinthians 5:19 (emphasis mine)

That’s such a simple definition of forgiveness: not counting your sins against you. Paul compared God to an accountant checking his books with its debts and credits. In God’s “ledger book” you have no outstanding debts. You don’t have to worry about getting harassing “collection calls” because Jesus paid all your debts with God. How would your life change if you knew that God held nothing against you?

To learn more about God’s forgiveness search this topic below in the search bar or check out my book, Starting Over.