THE CHALLENGE OF FORGIVING YOURSELF

'"I know that God has forgiven me, but I do not feel it inside." Why? The problem usually lies in the fact that, in spite of God's certain forgiveness these individuals have not forgiven themselves. The sin they have committed has been so great an offence to their self-image, their self-love has been so deeply hurt, that they are incapable of forgiving themselves. This especially occurs in cases where the sin is sexual immorality. If there has been a genuine confession, but the person still feels guilty, we are probably facing a psychological problem. The inability to forgive oneself is an issue more related to our self-image than our faith; the obstacle is not in our relationship with God but in the relationship with ourselves.' 

Pablo Martinez, Praying with the Grain, p.15. 

REPELLING THE ACCUSER

'When the devil throws our sins up to us and declares we deserve death and hell, we ought to speak thus: "I admit that I deserve death and hell. What of it? Does this mean that I shall be sentenced to eternal damnation? By no means. For I know One who suffered and made a satisfaction in my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Where he is, there I shall be also.' 

Martin Luther in Jeremy R Treat, The Crucified King, p.202. 

HAPPINESS

'A great part, perhaps the greatest part, of human happiness and misery arises from the view of our past conduct, and from the degree of approbation or disapprobation which we feel from the consideration of it.'

Adam Smith in Mark Vernon, The Meaning of Friendship, p.36.

GUILT & SHAME

'The place of his guilt and shame was like the unknown ocean of the early maps, full of monsters.' 

Wendell Berry, Remembering, p.26. 

POWERFUL WORDS

'She knew there were words so terrible you heard them with your whole body. Guilty.' 

Marilynne Robinson, Lila, p.110. 

GUILT

'Guilt means that our past - that which can never be made good - always constitutes one element in our present situation.'

Emil Brunner in JI Packer, 'What Did the Cross Achieve?', p.109.

GUILT

'A guilty sinner carries a witness against himself in his own bosom. It was guilty Herod cried out, "John the Baptist is risen from the dead." Such a conscience is the devil's anvil, on which he fabricates all those swords and spears with which the guilty sinner pierces himself. Guilt is to danger, what fire is to gun-powder: a man need not fear to walk among many barrels of powder, if he have no fire about him.'

John Flavel, Keeping the Heart, p.56.

SUFFERING

'It is a pity that our tears on account of our troubles should so blind our eyes that we should not see our mercies.'

John Flavel, Keeping the Heart, p.47.

GUILT

'...as for the guilt of sin, and the temptations from it, he knows more of that than any one of us. He tasted the bitterness of that, in the imputation of it, more deeply than we can, and of the cup of his Father's wrath for it, and so is able experimentally to pity a heart wounded with it, and struggling under such temptations. He knows full well the heart of one in his own sense forsaken by God, seeing himself felt it when he cried out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"'

Thomas Goodwin, The Heart of Christ, p.154.

IDOLATRY

'When idolatry is mapped onto the future - when idols are theatened - it leads to paralysing fear and anxiety. When it is mapped onto the past - when we fail our idols - it leads to irremediable guilt. When idolatry is mapped onto our present life - when our idols are blocked or removed by circumstances - it roils us with anger and despair.'

Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods, p.149.

GUILT

'If you are filled with shame and guilt, you do not merely need to believe in the abstract concept of God's mercy. You must sense, on the palate of the heart, as it were, the sweeteness of his mercy. Then you will know that you are accepted.'

Timothy Keller, The Prodigal God, p.109.