What is it that you don’t want to tell the Lord? Perhaps it was a moment when you were careless and hurt your friend’s feeling with a nasty remark. Worse, maybe it was time when you were out having fun and you found yourself pregnant. How many women have felt so alone and ashamed that they would never run to their parents with this news. Instead, they make a decision in seclusion that resulted in a lifetime of regret and shame. In those lonely moments in which you are plagued by your memories when you were not perfect that I would ask you to humbly look at the cross and say to yourself “ I believe.”Many times when we pray, we expect God to zap us with what we ask for. Zap and we are perfect, zap and he makes us patient, zap and we given courage, zap and we are out of debt, zap and our broken relationships are fixed, or zap and we are forgiven. Rather, I like to think of God as someone who gives us the opportunity to be patient, to be kind, to forgive and be forgiven.
Despite what we think was our worse moment, our worse failure at being perfect, our worse sin that we think keeps us away from the immeasurable mercy of God, it is really anger that holds us back from the mercy of God that will make us feel whole again.
If you want to experience peace in your life after you list all the dumb, foolish and yes even shameful deeds and words you have committed, then I urge you to come away from this fear and say to yourself: “I forgive myself despite… and name your sin.” Then after you say this a dozen or more times, step two is simply: “I forgive the one who has hurt me…”
Never doubt the power of God’s willingness to free you from your shame, your sin and your worse nightmares. Remember the last words Our Lord spoke from the cross: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” It is a “moment of grace” to surrender your sins to God and let go of the shame and fear that shadows your life. If no human words can bring relief from your suffering, then I would ask that you simply say to yourself inside your soul “Believe” and allow His healing presence to caress your troubled soul with His divine peace.
The Lord prays for us as we reflect: “The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayer.” (Psalm 6:9).
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine friends who continue to suffer daily from the memories that they have failed to live up to their expectations. Give us the humility and strength to understand that You died on the cross to show your immeasurable love that brings only divine mercy and inner peace.
