Can I forgive myself?

Imagine you go to college and get your first credit card. Loving the fact that you don’t seem to need real money, you run up $50,000 in debt. As you become aware that when you use a credit card you are, in fact, spending real money, you realize you are trapped by your foolish decisions. You cannot even make that much your first year out of college. Then, God writes you a check for $1,000,000. You take the check, crying in gratitude, fold it up, and place it in your pocket where it sits for years. Have you received His gift? Well, technically yes. But have you really received His gift or are you still trying to pay off the debt yourself? In the same way, if we do not apply God’s forgiveness to our overwhelming debt of sin, we have not really received His forgiveness. We are stuck trying to forgive ourselves. Without God’s forgiveness, the good news doesn’t feel that good to us.” (The Art of Breathing, p. 51)

God has more than ‘sin management’ in mind for you.

“We must decide if we will depend on our righteousness, or if we will trust the work of Christ. Will we trust in our own ability to be righteous or will we count on the mercy of Jesus? Will we strive to forgive ourselves or will we cash the check?” (p. 54)