Dealing with guilt the right way

One of the problems of being a committed Christian is that your conscience tends to become more and more sensitive. Things you did before that did not bother you, suddenly become sources of guilt when you fall into/ respond in the same old way to, entrenched hurts habits and hangups. It then becomes necessary to deal with guilt in a functional way (not beating up on oneself, not stuffing it and trying to ignore it).

Before I get into the functional way to deal with guilt, I want to mention that I was asked (under suspicion) by a non-Christian friend of mine (his own self description) about what motivates me. In other words what is in it for me? This is one of the things that the World does not understand, that the motives of the Christian are not purely selfish. Clearly we cannot fully get away from selfishness. No matter how mature in the Lord, we still see the World from behind our own two eyes! But when I fail (as we all do), it is precisely because I did or said or thought (attitude) something that was displeasing to Him. So what is my motivation? It is to please the Lord. It's easy to be distracted. There are many things including the trials and pains of life that tend to pull us away from our desire to please Him. Again as the Scriptures say “In many things we all fail.”

So back to dealing with the guilt we all have to deal with at times. I am talking here about true guilt (I did something wrong) as opposed to false guilt (guilt trips/shame - you are (I am) no good). As the conscience becomes more sensitive the feeling of having let Him down becomes heavier. The Scriptures again “there is a godly sorrow that leads to repentance.” Repentance is about turning away from something and turning to something (someone), turning to the Lord. What a faithful Friend. He is just not only to forgive but also to cleanse – the blood of Jesus – amazing. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Since we all fair, what is the difference between me and my friend? It is simply this, I am forgiven and cleansed. In this way (when we do repent and meditate on what He has done) our failures simply lead us closer to Him and will eventually fortify us, bring us into the security of His acceptance and set us free from the power of our failures. My guilt is gone, I've been set free. This is much better than beating up on me or stuffing or denying my guilt. Hallelujah what a saviour!