Do you get angry with yourself?
Do you get angry with yourself when you can’t live up to your parent’s standards?- “I need to please my parents and sometimes it doesn’t happen”
- “I need to have my parent’s trust and sometimes i break that trust”
- “I must get straight A’s”
- “I’m not always as organized as I want to be”
- “I will never be holy, like God wants me to be”
- “I lie often and God says not to lie”
When you become angry with yourself, you are becoming your own judge. You are not meeting up to the standards that you, your parents, or God has set up. You see that and then become angry with yourself as a sort of punishment for your sins.
“I just can’t forgive myself.” Have you found yourself ever saying these words? Maybe you know that you have sinned against God, and the only way to make things right in your eyes is to punish yourself by being angry at yourself. Let me assure you that if you have asked for forgiveness from God, you HAVE received it (I John 1:9).
If you still say that you cannot forgive yourself, you are declaring that your standards are higher than God’s.
God tells us that we need to forgive others for their sin (Ephesians 4:32) against us and that God will forgive us when we sin (I John 1:9) against Him. He never tells us that we need to forgive ourselves. If God and our friends who we sinned against has forgiven us, it would be self-righteous, if we say we can’t forgive ourselves.
If this has been a struggle for you, please email me (Pastor Matt). I would love to talk with you about how to get over this idea of forgiving yourself or just help with giving you a few more verses.