Guilt. Do you ever experience guilt?
"In Him we have redemption through His blood,
the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace
which He made to abound toward us..."
Ephesians 1:7-8
I used to live in chronic guilt. For years. For decades. I loved Lord Jesus with all my heart, I served Him in full-time ministry. Nevertheless, I lived in tormenting guilt. I am not talking about Holy Spirit conviction that brings hope and release; I am talking about the dark weight of guilt that robs one of joy. That robs one of abundant life.
So, I ask: do you live with chronic guilt?
You don’t have to. In fact, this guilt that you experience comes straight from the pit. The serpent of old, whom the Bible calls the Accuser, well, His number is up. And yet we play straight into his scheming lies. Truthfully, we let – and I once let guilt – rule my life. And by doing so, I was basically saying: Jesus shed blood on that horrific cross wasn’t enough; that His Word was not the truth.
There is no match for the precious blood of Jesus. And to let guilt rule my life reveals that I think my sin is greater than His sacrifice. Guilt declares that it is all about me, not what Jesus did. And that is pride in its purest form. Think about it. I mean, really think about this.
Heavy words indeed. But oh so freeing. We can’t even let the Holy Spirit bring freedom into lives until our guilt issue is laid to rest and we receive His full forgiveness. Yes, we must still wholeheartedly respond to Holy Spirit conviction, but guilt? It should have no place in a believer’s life. The Lord Jesus’ absolute forgiveness is the platform we stand on.
So, when waves of guilt come knocking, sent it packing. Don’t dally with it. Don’t live under it anymore. Because forgiveness has been lavished upon you and His once for all sacrifice is more, way more, than enough.
