Self-Condemnation

So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.  And because you belong to Him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. – Romans 8:1-2 NLT

Condemnation is a curious thing.  It can be extremely damaging to ourselves and others.  I find that I am very self-condemning and I also see this in my son.  Julie and I found that there were times when he had done something wrong and we didn’t know about it, but we could tell by his demeanor.  He had self-condemned himself, yet he wasn’t willing to tell us what he did.  The only remedy was to get him to tell us or discover what it was.  In the meantime, our son was a completely miserable person, which I am actually grateful for.  This means he has a conscious.  Once any kind of punishment was done for his action, he would immediately return to the normal happy son we were used to having. 

The difficulty now is teaching him (or trying to guide when he lets us) to recognize when he is self-condemning and to seek a remedy.  Confront a person to make a wrong a right; do whatever it is you were supposed to do; ask for forgiveness for not doing what you were supposed to do; ask forgiveness for what you did; seek to do what is right; find a way to modify your behavior so you don’t do whatever you did do; etc.  The remedy might be different for each situation, but recognizing that you are a miserable person inside because you have some unresolved conflict within you is very important.  Refusing to do this can remove years of joy.  This may not mean you don’t have happy times, but it means you won’t live in them to the fullest as you could have because a person living with unresolved conflict will unconsciously believe they don’t deserve those good times.  Therefore, they can’t live completely into them.

This is ultimately solved in faith.  When I ask God to forgive my sins, all of them, do I really believe they are forgiven?  If not, then why do I ask - I need to find my sin resolvement elsewhere or I need to abolish my moral conscious of right and wrong.  The difficulty is that we remember our sin even if God does not.

“Jesus Himself has already paid the price for your sins, so stop condemning yourself! Today, when you look into the mirror, what do you see? Do you see yourself trapped in all your failings, mistakes, and sins? Or do you see what God sees? My dear friend, when God sees you today, He sees Jesus. Use your eyes of faith and believe that as Jesus is, so are you. In God’s eyes, you are righteous, you are favored, you are blessed, and you are healed. You are freed from all sin, all pangs of guilt, all forms of condemnation, and every bondage of addiction!”  ― Joseph Prince

It is essential to our well-being to accept in faith that God removes our sin when we ask.  We admit to ourselves our sin – yes, I did that – then we ask forgiveness with a heart that doesn’t want to do it – please God forgive me – then we accept His promise.  To do less is to deny that Jesus was the Son of God and that He died, was buried, and was resurrected.  Anytime we refuse to accept God’s forgiveness we proclaim that God does not love us.  … Yes, it’s that serious.  …  Accepting this gift of the life and death of Christ is the foundation of our faith.  Refusing to accept His forgiveness is refusing to believe in Jesus.

Lord, I pray today that I would accept your free gift of forgiveness for all my sins.  Lord, help me to accept Your power of grace in my life to remove those sins from me forever.  Deliver me out of self-condemnation so that I might love myself as much as You do, and so I can love others as much as You do.  Through Jesus alone I pray, Amen.