Asking Forgiveness

If we are already forgiven for what we have done, as it says in the Bible, why do we need to ask for forgiveness ourselves?

In Psalm 103, we read, “Praise the Lord with affection and do not forget God’s blessings and benefits, for God forgives all your iniquities and heals all your diseases.  In summary, therefore, this does say, all is forgiven.

Asking for forgiveness, however,  is as much about our receiving forgiveness and knowing we have been forgiven as it is about the asking.  If we don’t ask for the forgiveness we need, we keep carrying around the imbalanced energy of what we have done which has caused that imbalance.  When we receive forgiveness, we reestablish the whole,  we open ourselves to healing and to the blessings of Divine Grace.  That opens up many other options of healing for us as well.  The forgiveness is always in the unformed energy around us.  If we ask for forgiveness, we give it form by making the request, and the vibration actually comes into our energy field bringing a new balance and equilibrium where we have been out of balance.  The Iranian mystic Rumi says, ” if you never know forgiveness, you’ll never know the blessings God gives”.

Forgiveness is a prerequisite to authentic prayer. If we are harboring negative thoughts or feelings in our hearts, they literally short-circuit and neutralize our prayers.  When forgiveness is received, what has been previously blocked or sealed off from love is thereby opened to receive God’s Love.  That’s how it happens.  When we are too filled up with un-forgiveness, there is no room, no space, no place of peace where we can receive the Love of God.  It’s like having a house too full of clutter to be able to offer a guest a place to sit and rest.

You might  feel you have been asking for Divine Healing Presence but that you do not feel it. Why might that be? It is most likely something in the connection and it is probably on our side.   One of the most prevalent reasons for a poor connection with Spirit is blockage because  we need to forgive someone or we need forgiveness ourselves.  Another block may be that we are not consciously seeking a relationship with Divine Energy/God/All That Is.

When we need  forgiveness, we are energetically out of balance.  Therefore, we can’t receive that which we most need, even when it is all around us.  We have to make space for the Energy of God if we want it.  There is almost no way to make space for the Divine Presence without making a conscious effort to do so.  Most of us aren’t likely to run into this energy on our way to work though that is not impossible.

We can live our entire lives without making a conscious effort to connect with our Higher Power.  Why would one want to go to God if we are not sure how we will be received? If we have been raised to believe that we need to be good in order to be loved, we may have a sense of unworthiness before God.  We might not want to acknowledge our  mistakes and the poor choices we have made.  We might not feel worthy of God’s love for ourselves.  It is all too easy to  think of our Higher Power as judging energy.

However, there is little to no “truth vibration” in this judging concept of Divine Presence. We see a judging God as probable because all around us, those in power often act in judging ways.   We might have been told as a child that God is watching so we had better behave.   Isn’t it just accepted that God is like a person, an entity, a being, and usually is separated from us?  Our language reinforces this and we know lots of folks who think this way.

Divine Presence, however,  is boundless energy in all its unformed perfection.  Further that same spark of Divinity is inside every single person in body regardless of how covered over it might be. This has been proven again and again to me through the medium of healing.  I call for healing energy with another, the energy comes,  is received and healing happens.  It does not matter at all who the person is.  This healing energy is available for all.   Based on this experience,  I have developed some ways of asking for help,  which work for me.

How do we ask for forgiveness or for the healing presence of God?

We ask for help

• knowing that we will always be heard,
• that God is always for us and never against us,
• that what is needed is given, and
• that there is nothing we can do which can make us unworthy of the Love of God.

  

From John 3, “Beloved, I desire above all else that you may prosper and be in health even as  your soul prospers.” God’s love for us is the constant here.  We essentially cannot earn it because it is freely given, fully given and available all the time.  There is nothing we can do that will set the love of God beyond our reach.  We are loved because we are.  Simply that.  We are, therefore, we are loved.

We are children of the Great I Am/All That Is/God , created in this image, a tiny spark of the Divine.  We can’t do anything that will forever separate us from the Love of God. However, we can be distanced from the Love of God by simply not being tuned into that Love or by not  embracing the fact that there is real, practical help from the Divine for every aspect of our lives.  We can choose to have any kind of relationship with Divine Wholeness we want.  It can be close, trusting and mutually appreciative.  We can have a theoretical relationship with All that Is, one we hold in abeyance in case we might need it someday when things are really bad.  We can also live our lives as if the Love of Divine Oneness is something we heard about in temple, the synagogue or the church.  We just never quite get around to really knowing that love for ourselves or asking for that love to come into our lives in ways we can know its fullness.

What type of relationship do you want with God? All the help you need is fully available to you,  if you ask, if you embrace it, if you listen for it in the Silence of your day.  Sometimes the help shows up without a conscious seeking of it in a particular situation.  Who knows why that is?  I like to think perhaps it is because our deepest desires and needs are always known even when we ourselves are closed to them.  However, I increasingly know when I need help.  If I go after that help,  I feel in the act of asking, I am preparing to receive it when the timing is right.

Put your trust in what which is really worthy of your trust. Put your trust in The Great I AM, your Higher Power.  I spent many years putting my trust in “being somebody”, in “having prestige”, in “being respected”  and in “being really good at what I did” and probably in  a myriad of other conditions, as well.  Many of us have likely spent years putting our trust in others or in our outer, public selves.   Take a step towards getting yourself a new partner for life, one that is always available, immensely powerful and loves you unconditionally.  Get into Right Relationship with God.  Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened.  A vibrant fully actualized relationship with Divine Spirit results in wholeness, peace, health and balance.

• Start with asking forgiveness for everything you ever needed to ask forgiveness for.

• Offer forgiveness to all those you need to forgive.

  

• Find the fountain of gratitude within and visit it daily.

• Speak with the Great Knowing even though you may feel unprepared, awkward or unworthy.  (Those are all human judgments that will pass with time. )

The risk of stepping out with Divine Oneness is that the experience will be more loving, more insightful and more powerfully present than you can possibly imagine.