In a world full of commitments, relationships, busy schedules, bills and appointments galore, it's almost human nature that we're going to mess up. We might've forgotten about that appointment that we had to be at, or we might've forgotten to study for that big exam that's worth 50% of our grade. Or better yet, we might've forgotten where we put our agenda or notebook with all of our plans written in it. At this point, it's safe to say that we've messed up. Even though we acknowledge that we've messed up, we might go into a whole other mindset. I'll give you an example.
I've always been very hard on myself, even at a young age. For example, whenever a friend would get angry with me, I would always take it way too far. I would sit and think about what a horrible person I am and soon enough I would get that mindset. I would also try to fix things as quickly as I can, in hopes that things will soon become better. To be completely honest, I haven't grown out of that. It's still one of my biggest flaws, and it's there because I simply made a mistake. I did something that every human does. In that time however, I develop another mindset that I'm the only one in the entire world that makes mistakes, which usually causes me to feel very lonely inside. After a few days, I usually get over it, but every once in a while, I have these random thoughts about those instances that put me right back into that mindset. It's like my brain is clogged up with these thoughts, which also makes it very hard for me to sleep and sometimes go about my daily activities.
When we do things that directly involves God, we might develop another mindset which is "God won't love me anymore because I sinned." Personally, I don't get that thought often even when I have sinned, but I've spoken with other people before that do get that thought inside their heads.
In John 8, Jesus forgave a woman who committed adultery. Spiritual leaders in her town brought her to Jesus to see if he would obey the Law of God and have her stoned. To their surprise, Jesus exclaimed that they could stone her since they felt like they haven't sinned on their own, and did not deserve a stoning themselves. When they heard this, the leaders dropped the stones and walked away. When the woman said there was nobody left to accuse her of sin, Jesus responded "Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more."
The moral of that story is that Jesus recognizes that we all mess up at one time or another. When we do mess up, Jesus wants us to learn from our mistakes. That way we can better ourselves, and we can help teach others. We can also forgive ourselves personally.
Also, it's important to remember that God's love endures forever. He will never stop loving us. However, we shouldn't knowingly sin just because we know we are going to be forgiven. We should still continue to live our lives in God's image, knowing that He loves us.
"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever," -Psalm 136:1.
-Kate