The other day someone said to me, "I really don't identify with asking God for forgiveness.  How do I do that?"

It's a good question, and speaks to the heart of many of the teachings of New Thought.

Ernest Holmes (founder of Centers for Spiritual Living), says, "the forgiveness of all sin is within man..."

He also says that there is no sin but a mistake, and no punishment but a consequence.  In modern day language, we make mistakes in life, and we experience consequences which may seem like punishment.  In addition, we learn, over and over again, that God is within each and every one of us, as well as present everywhere else.

The textbook of AA says, in the 11th step, that we ask God for forgiveness.  It doesn't say we do this in the 2nd or 3rd steps, and I think there is a very good reason for that.  The textbook was written for beginners, those in the first two years of sobriety.  (see the Foreward to the 2nd Edition of the textbook, where it refers to members with "substantial sobriety time" in 1937, when two years had passed since the beginning of AA).  I believe that most of us don't know what to ask nor what to forgive at steps 2 and 3.  But we have a clue when we reach step 11, and when we do 11 every day, those clues deepen into knowledge.  Knowledge that comes from the daily practice of introspection (step 10), and meditation and prayer (step 11).

We are taught in 12 step programs all over the world that it must be a God of our understanding. It must be something I can identify with, or asking for forgiveness from something that is alien or foriegn to me would be like being in the creek without the paddle.

I love the New Thought teachings that God is everywhere, moving in, as and through me.  And I love the phrase in the AA textbook, that God is the "Great Reality deep within."

So when I make a mistake, I don't ask God for forgiveness in the Judeo Christian way.  God for me is not some out there thing that does stuff.  When I want forgiveness, it is an inner awareness of giving myself a break, it is an inner committment to lighten up on myself.  And the God within me supplies me with the wherewithal to do so.

If you are having trouble with this concept, my suggestion would be to explore your concept of God.  Maybe the one you have right now isn't working so well.  It might be time to change it.

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