“Can it be that I haven’t for­given myself? Were my sins too shameful?”

I John 1:9 gives us a sure promise: “If we con­fess our sins, he is faith­ful and just to for­give us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unright­eous­ness”. The prob­lem then, is surely not with God’s abil­ity or will­ing­ness to forgive.

The only per­son left to doubt is yourself-which you have indeed done. So the bet­ter ques­tion we need to answer is, “How can I learn to for­give myself, since I know that God has already for­given?” Here are a few suggestions.

1. Turn your atten­tion away from your­self. You grow into Christ’s like­ness by behold­ing him (II Corinthi­ans 3:18), not by behold­ing your­self. As soon as you arise in the morn­ing, fix your thoughts on him. Read his word, talk with him. Let him cap­ti­vate your imag­i­na­tion so that you have no time to be doing men­tal replays of your past sins.
2. Dis­credit your feel­ings of guilt. It is fit­ting that you have a sense of remorse for your past fool­ish­ness. How­ever the dan­ger is when remorse trans­forms into feel­ings of guilt and rejec­tion. The adver­sary of your soul would like to make your feel­ings of guilt so strong that you for­get Romans 8:1, “There is there­fore now no con­dem­na­tion to them which are in Christ Jesus…” You must remem­ber this promise is true. Not because you feel it, but because God has promised it in his word.
3. Imag­ine Peter dur­ing the night of Christ’s cap­ture and trial. He has just denied his Lord. He is out in the dark­ness weep­ing, feel­ing the most awful weight of self-accusation and rejec­tion. Write Peter a “let­ter” telling him the things he most needs to hear in his hour of grief, assur­ing him of Christ’s love and for­give­ness and accep­tance. Then “mail” the let­ter to your­self. Keep it in your Bible, read it often and believe it. Can your sin be worse than Peter’s?
4. Learn the beau­ti­ful secret of praise. When unwor­thy thoughts come, start prais­ing the Lord that he has for­given you, that he has counted you wor­thy to bear his name, that he has seen fit to make your body his dwelling place, that you are a child of God. You are free! Rejoice in it, thank and praise God for it, and you will find that it will become more and more real to you as you exer­cise your faith through praise. Refuse to acknowl­edge those past sins. They are gone for­ever. You grieve the Spirit of God when you bring them up, for in doing so you doubt the power of the blood. Praise will enable you to rise up over this and enter into the realm of faith and vic­tory. Make Psalm 34:1 your tes­ti­mony: “His praise shall con­tin­u­ally be in my mouth”.

Taken from Ques­tions Pen­te­costals Ask by David F. Gray, 1987. Word Aflame Press: Hazel­wood, MO.