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 be the hardest part of forgiveness.

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 15 podcast. Our scripture for today comes from Proverbs 28 verse 13.

Scripture says,

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 Brennan Manning's book, Abbas 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.

He says this, 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, not in spite

of our sins and faults. That would not be total acceptance, but with them. Though God does not

condone or sanction evil, he does not withhold his love because there is evil in us.

Our father loves us unconditionally.

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