One of my friends was telling me this week he’s really struggling with guilt. He’s made so many mistakes in his life. Went down so many wrong paths. He’s like a dog that keeps running into the same glass door, he said, making the same stupid mistakes over and over again. Every day he feels guilt. He lives his life with deep sorrow and pain of past regrets. Something he lives with EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.
There are two kinds of guilt.
The good kind. The kind that our consciences tell us we’ve sinned against God. This guilt brings us to Christ’s feet, falling on His grace and mercy and love. Asking Him to forgive us. Asking Him to rescue us, heal our broken hearts. In true repentance, we are restored to Him once again and He mends the broken roads. When we take that first step in obedience, He helps us get back on the right road, His road.
There is another kind of guilt for a Christian. The kind that binds us. That keeps us chained. The kind of guilt that we, even after repenting, can’t seem to forgive ourselves. We can’t let it go. We can’t seem to accept His forgiveness. What we’ve done is too bad, too horrible for anyone to ever love us again, even God. We feel completely ashamed. We go into our little corners and die. We let our souls die.
Listen, if you’re a Christian, Jesus died for that kind of guilt to go away. If you’re carrying around the burden of guilt, as a truly saved person, and you’ve already repented and are in full obedience to Christ NOW and have done everything you can to make the situations better, asking Him to help you get back on His path, listen friend, you have NOTHING to be guilty of.
You’re set apart, you’ve been set free.
God died on the cross for those sins. He was dead and buried, just like the mistakes you’ve made. If you’re sincere in your repentance as a true believer, you CAN and absolutely SHOULD rest in His comfort…in His grace and forgiveness.
Because living a life full of regret and guilt will never ever get you to a place God can use you. God wants you to be a lighthouse, shining light for all to see, not hiding in the corner amidst Satan, keeping you depressed, miserable, sad, and guilty.
Let it go….let it all go. If God no longer condemns you after you repent, why do you think you are above Him to argue with HIM when HE SAYS He forgives you! Listen, if HE says you’re forgiven…you’re forgiven.
You believed Him enough to save you, believe Him enough to forgive you.
