Welcome to the In Touch podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, May 28th.

How well do you release the weight of past mistakes?

As we conclude this series on forgiveness, here are practical steps to help you extend grace to yourself and move forward with freedom.

Our forgiveness is never complete until, first of all,

we have experienced the forgiveness of God

until we can forgive others who have wronged us,

and thirdly, until we are able to forgive ourselves.

And, my friend, there will be no peace in your heart,

no real contentment until you are able to forgive yourself even for the wrongs that you have committed. God's forgiveness

isn't enough. Those you've wronged when they forgive you, that's not enough. You must be

willing to forgive yourself. I want you to turn to a beautiful passage of scripture

in the Bible that has to do with this matter of God's attitude about our forgiveness, and he says

it in a beautiful way in Psalm 103. I just want us to read a few of these verses here. In the 103rd Psalm, in verse 10, he has not dealt with

us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are

above the earth, so great, listen, as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his loving

kindness toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, which never meet,

so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Just as the father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has

compassion on those who fear him. For he himself knows our frame, he's mindful that we are but

dust. A beautiful assurance to you and me that God is a forgiving father. And what we have to ask

is this, and I'm going to ask you this several times, if I know that God is a forgiving father. And what we have to ask is this, and I'm going to ask you this several

times, if I know that God has forgiven me for my sins, whatever their nature, if I know that

God has forgiven me, how can I any longer hold an unforgiving spirit toward myself, which is just as destructive as if I hold it against

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