Totally Forgiving Ourselves

"But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus" (Phil.3.14)

I was struck this week by one of my daily readings which came from RT Kendall's book Totally Forgiving Ourselves where he writes, 'I must now define what I mean by totally forgiving ourselves: it is accepting God's forgiveness of all my past sins and failures so completly that I equally let myself off the hook for my past as God himself has done. It also means I must forgive others totally. This is an example of what it means to love my neighbour as myself...Why should God require me to accept his forgiveness and command me to forgive others but close his eyes as to whether I have forgiven myself? He doesn't. I'm sorry, but this matter of forgiving ourselves is not an optional extra in God's plan for us; it is something we are required to do as obedient children of our heavenly Father.'