**You can listen to the audio version here: Forgive Yourself Audio 537
Opening Prayer:
Father, in the name of Jesus, thank you, thank you God that we’ve made it through another day. I thank you for the mighty woman of God making it to this evening here and now. I thank you, God for traveling mercies God, that she was able to go out and come back God, safe.
I give you glory, oh God, for the mighty woman of God who made it home despite what might have happened throughout the day at work and outside God. She is here now. Lord, I thank you that we are here, God. We are here resting. We are here settling in for the day. I thank you right now God, that every weight of this day can break now.
We surrender the cares to you, the worries. Lord God, we cast the cares unto you for we know that you care for us, Lord. I thank you that the mighty woman of God is now here. She’s here God. I thank you for blessing her. Thank you for keeping her God. Thank you for surrounding her with your love this evening.
That as she rests her heart and mind, oh God, that the grace and glory of God will go before her to refresh her, oh God, to restore her God and help her to release the weight of the day. The things that she wishes she could change. Lord, I thank you God that we can surrender all of that to you and live in this moment, breathe in this moment, and be present, oh God.
For the Bible tells us in Psalm 46:1 that you are a very present help in the time of trouble. I thank you, Lord, and I pray in Jesus mighty name. Amen.
The biggest weapon of the enemy is shame. Shame at what was done to you. Shame at the things you did before you knew God. Shame for the mistakes you wish you could undo in your anger, in wrath, and in knee-jerk reactions. All of this weight and all of this shame are intentionally meant to keep you away from God.
To keep you in hiding is the sin of Adam and Eve, who felt shame in the garden to keep them away from God. Everything that we walk out day-to-day, everything that we walk through day-to-day, is meant to transform us, not in the ways of this world, but to show us the way to walk through the world with our God.
The moment that shame and condemnation come into play, the enemy begins to have his way. You begin to pull away, to hide, and to feel as if you are unworthy of being in the presence of the living God. But there is, fortunately, a word for that.
In Romans 8:1, it states:
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.- Romans 8:1 KJV
In this case, repenting, turning around, going back to the Father. These are the things that He seeks from us 70 times 7 (Matthew 18:22 KJV). This is what the Lord spoke of in scripture, about forgiveness, about release, and about trying again. This is the heart of the Father, that we can come back to him and that prayerfully we don’t continue to sin that grace may abound (Romans 6:1 KJV), but we come back, and we stay connected.
That we choose the grace of God over the validation and acceptance of this world. That we choose to rest in the presence of the living God versus seeking out the world and all of its good things, all of its apparent success, and all of its apparent pleasures. To turn to God and say,
Lord, I repent. I want to come back to you. I want to come back home.
We see the example with the prodigal who, even in the midst of eating with the pigs, God brought back to him his righteous mind. And he recognized that even his Father’s servants ate better than that (Luke 15:17 KJV). This is the part where we say:
God, life is crazy, but there’s something better.
Lord, I wish I could change what I said, but there’s something better.
I wish I could go back and think differently. But now, God, I come to you because I know there’s something better.
This is how we begin to open up dialogue with the Lord our God. We open up dialogue to forgive ourselves first. Forgive ourselves for what we did not know. Forgive ourselves for the lack of control. Forgive ourselves for knee-jerk reactions. Forgive ourselves for not seeing the obvious red flags in people around us.
Forgive ourselves for not knowing better, for doing things in our youth that when we grew older, we realized were wrong and we realized were not aligned, God. So I thank you right now, God, that there is grace in your presence. That for shame, oh God, you give us honor, and that there’s a great exchange. We can give you the old, oh God, and receive the new.
So Lord, I thank you. I thank you. I thank you, Lord God, for the mighty woman of God. I thank you for covering us.
It’s easy for me to slip into prayer because prayer is my ministry. But this devotional doesn’t end in prayer. It ends in a good word. It ends on a positive note. And so prayerfully, even that little mini prayer just begins to shift us into a place of just lifting our hands and giving God the glory because He is worth it. He is El Shaddai.
He is our keeper, our strong tower, and our great defense. He is the Lord. When we read scriptures like Psalm 91, which tell us that He will not allow our foot to graze a stone (Psalm 91:12 KJV). We know that we can walk with God, and in the midst of it, that He will cover us. He will keep us.
We don’t have to wander about it. It is the truth of the matter, and the Lord is with us in the midst. And so, here now, as you rest tonight, as maybe you journal in the evening, grab that pen and begin to release everything that you wish you could change. Everything that you’ve done and all of the shame for what you may be carrying.
The hurt that others have caused you and the hurt that you may have caused yourself. Release all of that layer by layer. Strip it with the help of the Holy Spirit. Begin to release it. Begin to forgive yourself. Begin to let go and begin to recognize that here and now, you can take authority and dominion in the very present.
You can take back control. Not from God, because we’re always walking with God, but we can take our hearts, our minds, our souls back from this world and place them before the Lord in prayer and fasting, and in submission to His word, His will, and His way. For we are all his daughters and his sons.
So, turning to God and knowing that nothing can take us from him, nothing can separate us from Him. There is a beautiful scripture in Romans 8:38-39, that really gives us peace, and I pray that it blesses you.
It states Romans 8:38-89:
38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
There’s always a way to come back, there’s always a path to restoration, and you may not see it in this moment, but sitting with God, resting in His presence, releasing and forgiving yourself first are the paths to forgiving others. These are the things that we do when we want to get back in His presence.
We want to sit under the weight of glory. We want to heal from every affliction, and we want to walk forward in Christ Jesus. The quicker we do this, the quicker we can begin to see things begin to line up in our favor. Doors begin to open, and the path to restoration becomes clear in His presence and by His Spirit.
May the Lord bless you. I’ll see you in the next Evening Devotional.
Good evening.
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