How do I know I'm forgiven

[Achamberofsilence]

I am a victim of child abuse.

In my teen years this abuse led me to all kinds of deviant sexual content online. I can honestly say I was trapped in deep sin.

I managed to break free in my early adult years and later, when I was welcomed into the Church I offered up all those sins and truly feel God forgave me at that time.

Lately, I find myself being tormented by those things I viewed in my youth. I am so disgusted with my past self. Even if I understand the psychology of how and why I was led to those sins, I still struggle with where I allowed my imagination to go.

How do I know I am forgiven and how do I forgive myself?

Edited to clarify: when I say offered up, I mean confession.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

If you’ve repented, confessed, and been absolved, God’s already forgiven you.

With respect to “how do you forgive yourself”, I would suggest that your struggle might be related to/ a consequence of the abuse you suffered as a child, and for that reason I think this issue would best be discussed with a mental health counselor and also with a priest.

God bless.

 

[Limoncello4021]

Jesus said He came to set us free. If you’ve confessed these sins and received absolution, you must strive to believe by faith that God keeps His word that they are completely wiped away. There are numerous Biblical passages about this, and many devotions such the Sacred Heart and Divine Mercy that confirm the truth of God’s forgiveness. I would make a plan to pray for the faith to believe this Truth and meditate on these things. If you find yourself still obsessing over your past sins, make an appointment with a priest to discuss it. It is certainly a ploy of the devil to keep us wallowing in our misery over confessed sins! Don’t let him win; choose the freedom Jesus offers us.

 

[fide]

How do I know I am forgiven and how do I forgive myself?

This is such an important question! So many Catholics struggle with this same doubt! And in my humble view, so many receive the wrong advice to find the true answer.

You will not “know” you are forgiven - but you can firmly, with certitude, believe you are forgiven. We can believe in God’s forgiveness (which is the forgiveness that matters), when we “hear” Him say so.

And I strongly suggest you can hear Him say so - that you are forgiven - when you seek Him at the foot of His Cross where He made your forgiveness true. Ponder the Cross! Spend time of silence, solitude and prayer before a crucifix, seeking to see His outpoured love for you and for all men, proving to us all that He cares, He forgives, He seeks us free and whole again, free to be all that God intended for us in the first moment of our conception into life.

Seek to hear, to see, to believe in His love and forgiveness, at the foot of His Cross - perhaps reading very slowly as well, the Scripture accounts of His self-outpouring for us all. Learn the Gospel, to believe, to receive and believe it, and Him.

Once you hear and believe Him, you will “know” (believe in) His forgiveness. And then you will see that you no longer have any “need to forgive yourself”. Indeed, you will see that “self-forgiveness” is nothing - means nothing - once you come to believe that God has forgiven you! God alone can give life - we cannot give ourselves life: He alone can do that.

 

[Dan_Defender]

I am reminded of the words of St Paul:
‘Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Well, I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air; but I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.’ - 1 Corinthians 9:25-27

St Paul struggled. Anybody who has committed grave sins in the past can expect to be haunted by them. Yet Jesus tells us; ‘Take courage! I have conquered the world’. We follow Jesus and do not get discouraged.