Brother,<\/p>\n
I am in my later years and obeyed the gospel nearly forty years ago. I have been in the church of Christ all this time. I have filled in preaching and teaching in my local congregation at many levels. I have been going to other countries for about fifteen years to preach, teach, and plant new churches.<\/p>\n
It seems I am in a bit of a quandary. And desperate. I sometimes go to your site and read the material.<\/p>\n
I have an important question to ask and hope to gain some insight from you. I have sins from my past (many years ago, some after I obeyed the gospel) that still haunt me. I have asked God over and over to forgive me. I believe God forgives when repentance is genuine, and I do believe my repentance has been genuine!<\/p>\n
I do not<\/strong> seem to forgive myself, though. It seriously drags me down, affects my relationship with others at times, and remains a constant and nagging thought tugging at me on many levels.<\/p>\n Can you help me, once and for all, learn to forgive myself and stop the lies Satan seems to bring forth in my heart and thoughts?<\/p>\n I would be grateful for your thoughts.<\/p>\n\t “Forgiveness” means releasing a debt. So, what debt do you owe yourself? Are you saying that you should have been perfect and never sinned? This would be a nice thought, but it is impractical since we all sin (Romans 3:23; I John 1:8,10). To claim to be without sin would be a sin. This doesn’t mean we excuse your sins. There is a reason you need God to save you.<\/p>\n You say you accept God’s forgiveness, but you don’t act like it. It sounds as if pride prevents you from admitting how weak you are, which gets in the way of truly being thankful for God’s rich mercy.<\/p>\n “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen<\/em>” (I Timothy 1:12-17).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Brother, I am in my later years and obeyed the gospel nearly forty years ago. I have been in the church of Christ all this time. I have filled in preaching and teaching in my local congregation at many levels. I have been going to other countries for about fifteen years to preach, teach,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[1571],"class_list":["post-84773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-forgiveness"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":27917,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/thank-you-for-talking-about-repentance-and-forgiveness\/","url_meta":{"origin":84773,"position":0},"title":"Thank you for talking about repentance and forgiveness","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 23, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I just want to thank you for answering some of the questions and confusions I have been dealing with. I am a real Bible-believing Christian woman who just divorced my husband of 20 years over his prolonged, continuous, unrepentant adultery.\u00a0 I prayed over him and reasoned with him\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9329,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-god-allow-my-husband-to-destroy-my-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":84773,"position":1},"title":"Why did God allow my husband to destroy my life?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 9, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello. I came across information about separation due to drug use on your site. I am in a situation to which I am seeking Godly counsel. Currently, I am a born again believer for almost three years now. God took my husband out of my life back in 2016,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69748,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-cant-grasp-the-concept-of-grace-and-that-i-dont-need-to-punish-myself-to-be-forgiven\/","url_meta":{"origin":84773,"position":2},"title":"I can’t grasp the concept of grace and that I don’t need to punish myself to be forgiven","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 10, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello sir, I have questions about sin, repentance, and the importance of confession and restitution. I love your website, and I admire your wisdom and helping others, which are completely backed up by Scripture. Your input would be greatly appreciated, sir. I also hope that by asking these questions,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39398,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-keep-repeatedly-committing-adultery\/","url_meta":{"origin":84773,"position":3},"title":"I keep repeatedly committing adultery","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 22, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I just came back from work and decided to browse on this topic repeated sin and luckily for me, I found myself on your site. I really need your help man of God. I am the worst sinner ever -- an adulterous woman. I am married with kids. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51812,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/im-trying-to-turn-my-life-around-but-it-just-doesnt-feel-like-when-i-was-first-saved\/","url_meta":{"origin":84773,"position":4},"title":"I’m trying to turn my life around, but it just doesn’t feel like when I was first saved","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 26, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Thank you so much for taking my question. Many years ago, when I was about 18 years old, I was saved. My life was completely changed at that moment, and I remember how for weeks following, I would go outside at night by myself and look up in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13326,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-i-divorce-my-husband-over-something-that-happened-twelve-years-ago\/","url_meta":{"origin":84773,"position":5},"title":"Should I divorce my husband over something that happened twelve years ago?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 29, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Twelve and a half years ago my husband was nearly arrested for having sex with another man in a public bathroom. At that time I also discovered he has a serious pornography addiction.\u00a0 He attended counseling for about six months and when the therapist moved he discontinued therapy.\u00a0 I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84773\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Answer:<\/h2>\n