Forgiveness

Today's Jesus card reading is on forgiveness.

When we think of forgiveness, we think of showing mercy on a person, however in this reading, I would like to focus on self-forgiveness, because when we don't have compassion for ourselves, we don't welcome God's peace, His grace, and in rejecting this, we are greatly hurting ourselves. 

To have forgiveness is to not worry, and to not worry is to accept, and to accept is to recognize, and to recognize is to admit, and when we admit a fault, we may be forgiven. To be forgiven is to have true and lasting peace. But we are taught that in order to receive this peace, we must first offer it.  

Everyone makes mistakes, and we tend to live in the fear that we will suffer material or spiritual consequences when we make a mistake. But God never works that way - God is Love, and Love keeps no records of wrongs (1 Corinthians 13.5 + 1 John 4.8). Rather, what God really wants is for us to let go of regret and fear, and this is where real forgiveness enters us. To practice forgiveness, is to truly be penitent, and to believe fully that God will not only forgive us, but allow us to forgive ourselves. 

When we receive peace from forgiveness, we become grateful for what we do have, and what we don't have suddenly seems less important. We can see more clearly, which means we can see more truthfully. 

What a beautiful world we create for ourselves, when we forgive us our shortcomings, as God forgives us our trespasses.