Yesterday we considered the first step in dealing with guilt, is the need to admit what we have done wrong. The glorious thing is when we confess our sins to God and truly repent of them, God removes them from His sight. ‘As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us,’ Psalm 103:12
The trouble is though God forgives us and removes our sins, we often struggle to forgive ourselves and remove them from our sight. Instead we keep going back to them as a child goes back and picks over a scab. The result is that we make it worse.
So after we have taken it to God, we might also need, if possible, to seek forgiveness from the person we hurt, or argued with, or gossiped about, etc. This isn’t always possible. If it’s not, then we simply have to accept that God has forgiven us and move on.
When we keep coming back to it and dwelling on what we’ve done and allowing guilt to consume us, we are undervaluing what Jesus did on the cross. Because the bible deals us He dealt with all our sins. Not just some and not just for the lucky few. All who believe in Jesus and accept His death and the penalty He paid for us can be washed clean or healed, Isaiah 53:3-6.
The bible tells us when we say we have no sin we make God out to be a liar, 1 John 1:8.Similarly, when we refuse to accept God’s Word that He has forgiven, put our sins away from us and remembers them no more, we are also calling God a liar as 1 John 1:7 assures us we are cleansed ’from all sin.’
Whenever we start to feel guilty over a sin that has already been confessed and dealt with we need to remind ourselves of God’s promise in 1 John 1:9, and thank Him that our sin is dealt with.
Remember Satan is the one who accuses us and wants to drag up past sins. So next time guilt raises its ugly head about something that has been repented of and confessed. tell Satan to get lost. Jesus has dealt with it.
Bible verses from The New American Standard Version
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How to deal with guilt – part 1
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