Dear Ones,
 A blessed weekend! May you take time during this advent time to reflect on the coming of Christmas. One of our friends here went home to the Lord yesterday afternoon and will be spending Christmas in glory!! We will all miss him even though we know he is in a far better place.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
  We all do wrong things and need forgiveness, but we don’t have to live as if those wrongs are relevant to how we view ourselves today. Yes, we need to look over our past failures and honestly name them but then have courage to forgive ourselves. In a sense we can rewrite the script of our life and release ourselves to be set free from guilt. If we take the other road to hate ourselves because of the hurt we caused someone else, we only sink deeper into a hole.

 We have a choice to make and His love gives us the right to forgive ourselves and let healing happen. Author of Forgive and Forget, Lewis Smedes, says you will know when this happens as you will feel one with yourself again. The split is healed and whatever you did before will no longer cause you to reject yourself for the ultimate miracle of healing has taken place.

  Not everyone rejoices when we have courage to forgive ourselves as they may want us to forever suffer for what we have done, especially if they are self-righteous. Just like the Pharisees who could hardly stand Jesus’ reaction to the sinful woman who fell at His feet at a dinner party; she washed his feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair and anointed them. Jesus said in Lule 7:47, “Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many are forgiven—for she loved much.””

  How about us? Do we grovel over something we did years ago or do we know that His love covers that as we spell it out and ask forgiveness. We are made new and healing comes as we believe God’s power to forgive and heal us. I get excited just writing about this. We don’t have to live with ourselves mulling over past sins, wishing we had not done something, but rather with grateful hearts that we are forgiven and made new. We may respond by praising Him and by doing acts of love for others with a freedom that comes only from Him.

  Challenge for today: The next time a past wrong surfaces to your mind, name it and ask forgiveness and then thank Him!
Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy