In our last podcast in our week-long focus on forgiveness, today we're going to look at what it takes to forgive ourselves.

For some of us, forgiving ourselves can actually be the hardest part of

forgiveness. So may God give us the grace to see ourselves as he does and offer ourselves

love, compassion, and forgiveness, regardless of what we've done.

Welcome to the First of Team Podcast. Our version of today comes from Proverts 2813 which said,

whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper,

but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.

As Christians striving to love others well and live in obedience to the commands of Christ,

we often are harder on ourselves than our Heavenly Father is. If we are ever going to

experience the depths of God's love in every season, we must learn to forgive

ourselves. In Brandon Manning's book, Abba's child,

The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging,

he writes a powerful statement that has the ability

to both guide us to a greater lifestyle of peace and open the door of our

hearts to greater affections from our Heavenly Father.

Manning writes, but we cannot assume that he feels about us the way we feel about ourselves,

unless we love ourselves compassionately, intensely, and freely.

In human form, Jesus revealed to us what God is like. He exposed our

projections for the idolatry that they are and gave us the way to become free of

them.

It takes a profound conversion to accept that God is relentlessly tender

and compassionate toward us just as we are.

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