Lots of us live with guilt, but is that what God wants for us?
Christians believe that our sins can be forgiven, but we also need to accept that God wants to take our guilt away!
This was David’s experience:
Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.” And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone. (Psalm 32.5)
Guilt is crippling and we need to be free from it.
If we believe that God has forgiven us, then you also need to forgive ourselves.
God wants us to be free from sin and guilt, but he also wants us to learn from our mistakes.
The difference though between God and guilt is that Guilt condemns and leaves us feeling useless and unworthy but God helps us to see who we can become if we can be free from sin.
Guilt says ‘you are rubbish’ but God says ‘you can live a fulfilled life’.
I took these pictures yesterday afternoon (the images are free for you to reuse, but please credit me and link to this page in any online usage of the photographs).
I wrote several words in the sand and took photos as the words were washed away but strangely, the word ‘guilty’ is the one that took the longest to be erased by the sea. This was a challenging and a helpful reminder that guilt is one of the hardest things for us to let go of and to find freedom from.
Guilt is hard to let go of, but as you can see from this final picture, it can be erased once and for all if we believe in the power of God’s forgiveness and grace.
David described his experience of forgiveness and freedom.
Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.” And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone. (Psalm 32.5)
This was his experience, but it can also be ours.
