I get so excited about sharing the second half of the activity we started yesterday (confessing your sins/mistakes) because I’ve found this is where so many people get hung up.

Most of us (especially those of us struggling with our confidence) can easily rattle off a long list of ways we fall short. Focusing on your mistakes alone will just destroy your confidence even more.

So….then what?

The second step of confessing is asking for AND accepting God’s forgiveness.

When we are minimizing, justifying, stuffing, and blaming someone else for our poor choices, it doesn’t take away the consequences of our actions. It exacerbates them. The people we hurt are still hurting, we are still relying on our actions to earn our worth, and we aren’t growing or healing ourselves either.

And, often, we end up carrying more and more shame that isn’t our burden to bear.

I know it can feel like we’re helping the situation or helping ease the other person’s pain by continuing to beat ourselves up, but that’s where the world has it wrong.

Shame keeps us stuck with our eyes focused on ourselves while Christ-like love keeps our eyes focused outward (on God and people around us) and gives us a desire to do better.

It’s common to hear “you are bigger than your mistakes” in today’s self-empowering world, but I’d like to edit that phrase to say “God’s grace is bigger than your mistakes”.

Instead of getting stuck beating yourself up over your mistakes, own them fully (like we talked about yesterday) then ask for God’s forgiveness.

“God, I’m so sorry for snapping at my husband yesterday. Please forgive me for my impatience and help me to show him patience like You’ve always shown me in Your perfect love.”

Lifting up your sin to the Lord is not evading responsibility. It’s recognizing your limits and trusting that God will bring beauty from your ashes.

The other part of this that is so often missed is accepting God’s forgiveness and walking forward in freedom.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9

Do you believe this is true?

And do you believe it’s true for you?

Then you can hold your head high, confidently knowing you are imperfect and also knowing you have a Savior you can rely on to fill all of your gaps.

It really is that simple but I also know how difficult it is to change the way you think when you’re used to defaulting to tearing yourself down to earn worthiness.

Accepting forgiveness feels too easy, like we’re not working hard enough to earn it…which is exactly the point and that goes right back to your identity in Christ.

You did nothing to earn it. You don’t have to work to keep it. It was a free gift given to you. What a beautiful Truth to rest in.

Today, spend a few minutes journaling about where you have gotten stuck in the past in the process of accepting God’s forgiveness and walking forward in freedom.

Tomorrow, I have another tool that will help you do just that.

Talk to you then,

Becky