Beating yourself up over past mistakes does not make the mistakes go away.  What it does is cement the mistakes in your mind for as long as you want to hold on to them.  The only way to recover from things in the past is to bring them before God.  When we sin, we are attached to our sins whether we like it or not.  Some sins we own up to and others we deny and push back in our minds.

2 Peter 2:4 NIV “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment;”

Whether we like it our not, our sins are chains. Just like the angels in 2 Peter 2:4, darkness in our life is a chain. When we keep beating ourselves up, we keep adding chains to the struggle. Every time you keep beating yourself up with your failures, you keep making it harder and harder to let go of your problems. When we are chained to our sin, we feel helpless. The good news is that we are not hopeless. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, we have hope. No longer are we bound by chains. When we ask for forgiveness, our sin is set free.

Your spiritual walk is hampered when you keep beating yourself up.

Beating yourself up over the past, makes the demon's come alive again. We often tuck our sins away neatly in the back of our mind and try to forget about them. Instead of bringing the sins to the forefront and seeking forgiveness, we hide, thinking that we grow past our sins. The sin, mistakes, and failures of our life will never leave until we meet them head on and let them go. We need to give them to Jesus. Through his death on the cross, Jesus bought and paid for our sins.

When we don't seek relief from our sins, mistakes, and failures, we are not putting our faith in Jesus. You may think that the easiest path to moving on is burying your struggles. What is happening is that Satan is tricking you by deceit. He is deceiving you into believing that you can never be forgiven. He is fooling you into thinking that you are not worthy of forgiveness from Jesus. Instead of choosing the easy path to recovery through Jesus, he sends you down a dark path of depression and anxiety.

Jesus loves everyone equally.

No matter what you have done or the mistakes that you have made, Jesus loves you. In fact, he loves everyone the same no matter what their sin or struggle is. We need to be reminded that he died on the cross for everyone, not just a few. My hope for you is that you will let go of the past. Turn away from your struggles and turn to Jesus. No matter how hard you look in life, you will never find the comfort and peace that can be found in a relationship with Jesus.

To learn more about how you can begin your journey, click here.