When we come to the stage of forgiving others like that,
something else happens. We can enter into joyful experience of receiving
God's forgiveness for ourselves.
It is always much easier to see other people's
failures than our own. But we need to see ourselves for what we are. One
of God's fallen people who is constantly failing him. When we have
quarreled with someone or have been hurt by someone, it is probable that
we are as much to blame as they are. When we recognize this, we can come
to God as we are - full of fear,
coated with guilt, heavy-hearted with sorrow and shame. And we can
see God as he is - full of love, longing to receive us back,
over-flowing with forgiveness:
'If we confess our sins
to God...... he will forgive us our sins and purify us from all our wrongding.
'(1John 1:9 GNB)
So we can stretch out dirty hands and feel him washing
us clean. We can tell him that it feels as though we have a horrible disease
and we can feel him healing us and re-filling us with the energy of his
Holy Spirit; filling our hands and our hearts with his love.