Jesus has used an analogy between Peter’s denial with His three questions of restoration. Do you love me--then do this assignment. Do you love me--then feed my lambs, take care of my sheep, feed my sheep.
It’s time for Peter to stop replaying the old film in his head, and move on. For Peter this breakfast was the turning point. It was time to push the stop button on the guilt.
Self forgiveness is a tool that we should use to face what we’ve done in the past, acknowledge our mistakes and move forward.
This is exactly what Peter had to do when Jesus was questioning him. If he truly loved Jesus, then he had to realize that the guilt and self punishment had to go. The grace of God covers a multitude of sins.
Hit the stop button.
Replaying your personal bad movie isn't going to help. Listen to yourself.
Every time you catch yourself rehashing your sins, mistakes, missteps, faux pas, you need to intentionally stop and refocus. Let go of the old stuff and decide to move on to more productive things.
If you need to go back and apologize to someone you’ve hurt, then get it done.
Begin to repair the damage you may have done in the past by spreading good to others around you. There will be some things you can’t go back and change or fix.
You can’t always make things up to someone you have hurt or wronged in the past; but you can do some helpful things for people who are in your life right now.
Peter could not go back and cancel out a lot of those foot-in-the mouth statements he made or those impulsive actions he made. But he was facing a new day with new opportunities to help people in the future.
There were many, many opportunities that still lay ahead of him. Jesus was saying, "Stop! Get with the program. You’ve got plenty of work to do."
Stop beating yourself up over the past. It is time to move toward doing good and productive work to bring healing into your own life and the lives of others.
You CAN forgive yourself.
Decide to do it today.
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