Guilt Is Not your Friend!

      Aren't you tired of feeling guilty? Guilty that you didn't stay at home with your kids. Guilty that you didn't go back to work and help with the finances. Guilty that you don't cook enough. Guilty that you don't read your Bible more often. Guilty that your house isn't very clean, your laundry is piled as high as Mt Everest. The dishes are stinking in the sink. Guilty because you are not as thin as you were in high school and you should probably exercise more. Guilty, Guilty, Guilty! Doesn't the burden of not adding up or being enough weigh heavy on your shoulders? Well..guilt is not your friend. I don't think guilt comes from God. It makes a feel bad about ourselves, discouraged that we don't measure up. God doesn't talk like that. He will discipline and correct us but not with guilt. Guilt doesn't produce peace or righteousness it often produces shame and unworthiness.

"No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. " Hebrews 12:11. 

       Think of a car wash. Sometimes your car is dirty, there is the grease, the grime, the garbage of the world stuck on it. It happens before you know it, while you are going about your everyday business. You look at your car and think, "How on earth did this get so dirty?" So you take it to get cleaned. But what if your car stopped mid-cycle? What if the dirt of the world was so heavy your car stayed in the wash? Would it be good for the car? Wouldn't it get rusty? Maybe start falling apart? How useful is a car that is stuck, not moving, slowly deteriorating?

     How useful are you if you are stuck in guilt? Weighed down by the junk of this world? This is right were Satan wants you, bound up so you are not even in the game. Jesus came to set us free. He came so that we might live life not just going through the motions, not stuck. He came so we can live an abundant, fruitful, flourishing life, overflowing with His love. Throw off this cloak of guilt from the world and instead claim the promises of the one who created you. Be ready for when God disciplines you but don't let guilt trap you in its clutches.  

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."  Romans 12:2