Stop Fighting a Fight that has Already Been Won

     Have you ever listened to a song 1,000 times and then on the 1,001 time you listen to it, something different comes to mind? I was listening to the song, "Redeemed" by Big Daddy Weave. Anyway, something this time really stuck out to me. It doesn't matter who I have been. I could have messed up yesterday at 11:59pm, and be someone can be a new person today at 8:10am as long as I have truly asked for forgiveness. (I didn't mess up at 11:59pm...I was asleep. But I'm just saying).
     Often times I continue to beat myself up for my past when there is nothing I can do to change it. "Stop fighting a fight that's already been won." It is insulting to God when I continue to remind myself of who I used to be, what I have done. It's like saying that He isn't strong enough to take it away. God's hand doesn't reach that far. "Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save" (Isaiah 59:1). But God has already forgiven me. I need to forgive myself now.
     But how can you forgive yourself when you have done things so shameful? I struggle with this question daily. How could I have hurt God so much? How can He love me when I have hurt Him? I think the best way to forgive yourself is to truly come to the understanding that God cannot love you any more when you are in your best state, serving the Kingdom as a missionary, than he does in your worst state. "He does not love you based upon your performance. There is nothing you can do to cause God to love you any more than He already does—and there is nothing that will cause God to love you any less. He loves you, even more than you love yourself."
     The next thing I do to remind myself that I am forgiven is to pray. Being surrounded by God and His love always makes me feel comforted in a way that I cannot describe. Get into the Word and pray to Him. He wants to hear your voice.