Self-Forgiveness

When I was reading my bible today, I prayed to God that He guide me to what He needs for me to hear. He guided me to the back of the bible, looking up Forgiveness, more so, self-forgiveness. What God revealed to me was just this.

There is not a single scripture in the Bible that incites, invites, or implies the act or need of self-forgiveness. There is not a single story in the Bible that even remotely points to such a thing. The Bible has a great deal to say about God forgiving us and us forgiving one another, but it says nothing about forgiving ourselves, because forgiving oneself is not the answer to sin. If an unbeliever forgives himself, for instance, he is still in his sin. If a believer forgives himself, he is taking the place of God. If he says, "I know God has forgiven me, but I just can’t forgive myself," he is placing his own judgment above God’s merciful provision.

The Bible clearly commands us to love the Lord our God, our neighbor as ourselves, our brothers and sisters in the faith, and even our enemies. It also tells us to forgive one another, as God has forgiven us.

Forgiveness is meant to be an act of love between persons rather than within one’s own self. Self-forgiveness is just one more symptom of worldly self-love, and self-condemnation is just one more symptom of self as god.

When we sin against God, it is God who forgives us.
When we sin against others, it is others who forgive us.
When others sin against us, it is us who forgive them.
So I ask can a person sin against himself, and then forgive himself?

Forgiving or not forgiving self is based on pride. Confessing our sin to God and to one another and then receiving forgiveness from God and one another should result in humility and gratitude. By not receiving and faithfully believing God’s forgiveness in us, either by not confessing sin or by holding onto a self-righteousness that says, "I can’t forgive myself," is prideful and ungrateful. It places one’s own evaluation over God’s, and when we’ve been forgiven by others, it says that their forgiveness is not adequate.

Christians have been saved and forgiven on the basis of the sacrificial death of Jesus, who died in our place. Thus, when God forgives His children, it is finished, signed, sealed, and forgotten.
(1 John 1:9) "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness".
(Psalm 103:12)"As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us."

I know for me I struggled for so long with not being able to "Forgive" myself for my past. NOT ANYMORE. I am not God, I repented my sins. The bible tells me these sins are forgiven, and forgotten. So who am I to tell God that He is smaller than me. The God I serve way bigger than I could ever imagine.
So I ask you, what is it today that you think you are BIGGER than God, and think you can judge yourself better than Him? If He says you are forgiven, because you have repented with all your heart, than is this not enough for you? Even the big stuff, the awful stuff, the skeletons that are deep in your closet. Repent with your heart, and you are forgiven.....we are not God, so stop judging ourselves!!!

Jeremiah 29:11
“I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says the Lord, “thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

Psalm 130
1 From the depths of despair, O Lord, I call for your help.
2 Hear my cry, O Lord. Pay attention to my prayer.
3 Lord, if you kept a record of our sins, who, O Lord, could ever survive?
4 But you offer forgiveness that we might learn to fear you.

5 I am counting on the Lord, yes, I am counting on him. I have put my hope in his word.
6 I long for the Lord more than sentries long for the dawn, yes, more than sentries long for the dawn.

7 O Israel, hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is unfailing love.
His redemption overflows.
8 He himself will redeem Israel from every kind of sin.