Casandra Martin

Guilt can eat you alive. It gnaws away at your insides, crushing your spirit, twisting through your mind, and nagging at your soul like a drip in the night. Guilt is a burden that makes our hearts ache with its weight. We get caught in its vise-like grip and struggle to breathe. Guilt is persistent. Once it has its hooks in your heart, it digs in and hangs on. Over time, its roots seem to work their way into the fabric of your soul.

God created guilt for our good. Guilt, in its proper context, serves as a warning system that we have veered away from holiness. When our hearts and minds are calibrated by His character, guilt flares up when we move out of alignment with His will. It encourages us to quickly repent and seek His face. His grace is the remedy for our guilt. As His mercy washes over us, the guilt alarm is silenced and replaced by His peace.

The function of guilt has been skewed by our sin-infected, self-absorbed, shame-enflaming world. We wrestle with reconciling the forgiveness that God promises us with the guilt that seems to have a hold of our hearts.

God did not mean for us to be crippled by guilt. Living in the freedom of forgiveness begins by examining the truth of your guilt in the light of His Word. Repent of what needs repenting. Confess what needs confessing. Then believe what God says about the grace He pours out on you. Remember that your feelings don’t always accurately reflect His truth. Your feelings have to be trained to follow what He teaches us is true. It takes time, practice, and surrender, but even guilt can be transformed.

My Jesus Resolution today is to take my guilt to the cross. Jesus paid for it there. Drowning in guilt doesn’t help me look like Jesus. It eats away at my peace, and robs me of my joy. I am going to answer guilt with the truth of God’s Word. I am going to let what He says about me speak louder than the guilt that wants to whisper continually in my ear. Like the sinful woman who poured her tears out at Jesus’ feet, I am going take heart in His gentle words. “And he said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven. Your faith has saved you; go in peace.’” (Luke 7:48, 50)