Genesis Chapter 50

16 So they sent word to Joseph, saying, Your father left these instructions before he died:
17 'This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.' Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father. When their message came to him, Joseph wept.
18 His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. We are your slaves, they said.
19 But Joseph said to them, Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God?
20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
21 So then, don't be afraid. I will provide for you and your children. And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.

Even though Joseph had forgiven his brothers and told them this, they were worried that after Jacob's death, he would take revenge. They had been worrying about this all their lives, expecting some form of divine retribution and found it hard to believe that Joseph would actually tell them he forgave them and really mean it.

One of the hardest thing of all, perhaps, is to not only to accept forgiveness from others but to forgive ourselves. It is one thing to forgive others, to accept what they have done and turn the other cheek, but how do you forgive yourself for some of the mean and rotten things you have done? It is easy to think of yourself as worthless, unlovable, unwanted, too sinful to be forgiven. And far easier to forgive the things others have done to hurt you. How can you accept forgiveness when you know how selfish, how hurtful, how wrong you have been?

But each and every one of us is important to God, from the tramps sleeping rough in the streets, to the most powerful men in each country. I, my children, my husband and parents, brothers, their families, are no less important in God's eyes than the men running the country, government officials, doctors, dentists, teachers, ministers, soldiers, sailors, airmen, our neighbours, the man across the street, the woman serving behind the counter in Asda, we are all important to God, each and every one of us. No matter who we are, what we have done, God loves us more than words could ever express, and he demonstrated this love when he sent his one and only son to die on the cross for our sins, that we might spend eternity with him.

And just as Joseph wept when he heard what his brothers had to say, how they did not believe he had forgiven them, so God weeps when he hears how we distrust him, how we can't believe we have been forgiven and how we cannot forgive ourselves.