Forgiveness

“Who else do I need to forgive?” I asked the Lord on Saturday afternoon. A podcast I was listening to inspired the question. I leafed through a Rolodex in my mind of people I’d held in unforgiveness. As I flipped through each one, I heard, “nope, nope, nope”…finally we got to the end and no one popped up. Yet, I still felt like there was someone I needed to forgive.

Am I perfect? Absolutely not, but getting to the end of the Rolodex present day actually started in 2023. I purchased a book called Forgiveness by Dr. Rodney Hogue because the Lord had revealed a lot of unforgiveness in my heart. I had held onto this unforgiveness of several people for years. Reading that book led me to liberty from unforgiveness. It was an incredibly hard journey, but I was determined to do the work of releasing offense and forgiving.

Friend, I wanted FREEDOM!

Dr. Hogue put it this way,

Once I had moved through extending forgiveness to everyone who came up, I had to learn to forgive continuously. Why? Because I am human, and I get offended and will continue to be offended until I die. The key was to take it to God immediately, releasing the person from offense, and moving on in freedom. Rather than holding tightly to it, which tightened my jaw, resulting in grinding my teeth and pain in my jaw. Anyway, I recognized that this practice of continuous forgiveness got me to this place I was on Saturday, where no one popped up from the Rolodex.

I leaned back in my armchair, a little perplexed that no one had popped up, then I heard Holy Spirit say, “Yourself. You need to forgive yourself.” My eyes widened and moistened. I knew He was right. In 2023, when I had done the work of forgiving others, I had also forgiven myself, but I failed to apply the practice of continuous forgiveness to myself. So I had gathered up a whole new pile of offences against myself. One by one, I listed areas I had held in offence, and one by one, I forgave myself. I repented of having an opinion of myself that God doesn’t have of me. I repented of beating myself up for any and every situation I deemed to be my fault. It felt like the release you get from a good massage. The knots melted away, and I felt relaxed and restored. Now, I’m working on paying attention to when I am upset with myself so I can deal with it right away.

Friend, do you need to forgive yourself?

Dr. Hogue exhorts us with the following scripture:

If you’re anything like me, you’ve likely beaten yourself to a pulp for things you were responsible and things you weren’t responsible for. When you think about it, self-flagellation is a tool that the enemy uses to keep us from our true identities. When we quickly forgive ourselves, we can move on to do the work we’ve each been called to do without hindrance.

If this resonates with you, I’d invite you to pray the following prayer from Dr. Hogue’s book,

“Father, in the Name of Jesus I forgive myself for my sins against me. I renounce self-condemnation and self-judgment for the things that You have already forgiven me of because I have sincerely confessed them to You. I declare that the payment for my sin had been perfectly satisfied once for all by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. I receive Your forgiveness and ask You to cleanse my heart. I ask You to help me discern between the conviction of the Holy Spirit for my sin against You and self-condemnation that I would head on myself. Thank you Jesus that my value doesn’t come from this world but comes from You. Amen.” (Hogue, 2008, Chapter 10)

Be kind to yourself. 💐

Until next week …

Miracles + Blessings!

Brenda

References

Hogue, Rodney. 2008. Forgiveness. Hayward CA: Community of Grace. Kindle.

ISBN – 978-1-61842-495-2