Читать книгу Deep, Soulful Places - Elizabeth J Pierce - Страница 13

An even more common reason people don’t sit and bask in His love, in my personal and professional experience, is the issue of not forgiving ourselves. We are not condemned in Christ. But we are condemned in self. I can be horrible at forgiving myself when I make mistakes. Especially if they are mistakes that negatively impact another person, like hurting someone I love. I have walked around for years beating myself up for things I have done wrong that I feel I shouldn’t have. I’ve confessed them to God (if you are not clear about why you do this even though you are already saved, I’ve shared my thoughts about this in appendix F), which means I’m forgiven, but I don’t feel forgiven. Why? Because of myself! Well, I actually think it’s because I’m allowing the enemy to deceive me into thinking that my mistake was bad enough or that I should have known better and, therefore, somehow, I’m still kind of “on the hook” for it.

But think about that. Do you know what that really means? If I keep myself (or someone else for that matter) “on the hook” for a wrong that has been done but has been confessed to and forgiven by God, what I am saying in essence is that Jesus’ death on the cross wasn’t good enough for me. My sin can’t be covered by His sacrifice. Which means that I’m saying that those verses like Romans 8:1 aren’t truth. Which ultimately means that I’m saying that God is a liar. That He didn’t really mean He would save us through Jesus’ death on the cross. If I’m still on the hook for mistakes that I’ve made, said sorry for and asked forgiveness for, if I’m condemned for them still, God is a liar.

I don’t believe that God is a liar. In fact, I know that God is not a liar. He is truth. Titus 1:2 says God does not lie. But the Bible does say that Satan is the father of lies, and that there is no truth in him (John 8:44). So, when I find myself feeling something that does not measure up with what the Bible says (the truth), then I know it is not the truth. It is a lie. Which means, I know where it comes from. I also have a pretty good clue about where it comes from because of how it affects me.

When we feel condemned, we don’t feel all warm and fuzzy. We usually feel really rotten and want to avoid whatever it is that makes us feel that way. I think that is the whole point of self-condemnation. Of feeling guilty. Of being plagued by guilt, guilt-ridden, driven by our guilt. The enemy of our souls wants to make us feel so rotten about our relationship with God that we pull away and alienate ourselves from His love and all He has to offer us when we are intimate with Him. And when we are pulled away from that love, it’s like a flower out of water…we start to feel so dry and lifeless in comparison to the way we feel when we are connected fully to Him. Satan wants us to believe that there is condemnation. But Jesus promises no condemnation and went to great lengths in His short time on earth to make sure we saw Him prove this promise to be true.