PRAISE & PRAYER PROMPT ••• We all experience guilt in varying degrees throughout our lives. It’s a miserable feeling.
I sometimes wonder how Adam and Eve must have felt… The Bible doesn’t tell us how long they were in the garden before they ate the forbidden fruit. So we don’t know how long they experienced perfect utopia before it was turned upside down by sin and then the plague of guilt flooded their previously tranquil existence. But even if it was only for a day, can you imagine messing that up? Can you imagine the despair they must have felt as the first to experience guilt? Genesis 3:8-10 describes it—their first instinct was to hide.
And how well we can relate to that! Just as sin is a disease that plagues humanity, so is the side-effect of guilt.
For many, guilt becomes such a monster that they are literally paralyzed by it. They cannot get around it. It truly is their Goliath, but unlike David, they lack the confidence to face it.
The thing is, David didn’t have faith in the stone to slay his Goliath. Nor did he have faith in his own marksmanship. He had faith in God.
And when we repent and confess our sins, God is faithful to forgive. We can face our Goliath of Guilt and armed with nothing more than our faith in Jesus’ redeeming salvation, all who believe can overcome that giant guilt that plagues us.
Don’t get me wrong. Guilt doesn’t always go down easily. It has a strong will to survive and torment. But we must cling to the promise found in Romans 8:1-2, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death” (ESV).
Don’t get me wrong, sometimes guilt is what convicts our hearts and turns us back to God. However, guilt is also a tool used by Satan to deceive you into believing that your brand of sin is so horrible that it’s the worst of the worst—a sin beyond forgiveness.
But our Savior is always willing to forgive true repentance. And in one of my very favorite promises from the Bible, God chooses not to remember. Jeremiah 31:34b quotes God—“For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (ESV).
Isn’t that a beautiful promise?? It’s not that God forgets. He can’t as He is all-knowing. But He CHOOSES not to remember. I absolutely love that.
So whatever guilt you hold on to, let it go. If the Creator of the universe chooses not to remember and Christ does not condemn us, tell the guilt no. Then let it die.
Today, as you pray, thank God for choosing not to remember our sins and thank Jesus that through His redeeming blood and forgiveness, we don’t have to be paralyzed by guilt. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you slay your Guilt Giant is that it will no longer taunt you or have power over you.
