Freedom from guilt

“Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him,” that a beautiful verse from Romans 4:8. God through his word tells us of his so many blessings upon us and one of those best verses is the verse above. I realize that the guilt that we get from our sins can eat us away despite the fact that we are forgiven. Guilt is a terrible thing.  The bible tells us of the story of Judas Iscariot who as a result of guilt ended up hanging himself (Mat 27:1-5). Judas had betrayed Jesus and when he realized that he had betrayed an innocent man, he decided to return the money that he had been paid for his act. However, when he went to the authorities to try ‘withdrawal his statement’, they ignored him and told him that it was his responsibility. This led Judas to the act of suicide through hanging himself. 

This is usually our fate many times. Our lives before receiving Christ are sinful and a betrayal of Christ. During this time we are usually guilty of our sin. Worse is when someone tells us about Christ or we come to the realization of our sins. This causes so much guilt in us that many times leads us to repentance and therefore to receiving Christ, who unlike the authorities in the case of Judas forgives us instead of sending us away.

However, there are many times despite being forgiven, we still hold on to guilt. This guilt holds us down for so long that it affects our relationship with God. This guilt tries to convince us that we are not good enough, that we are still sinful and that God can’t love us well. I speak about it because I have been there. During these times it becomes so difficult to pray because when we begin, we remember of our sins and instead of moving to higher levels of prayer, we just keep repenting. Other times we even feel so unworthy to even serve God in ministry because this guilt makes us feel worthless. I had suffered this for a long time after coming back to Christ, until one day God through someone helped me to realize that guilt is the devil’s weapon to drag us down and to keep us from rising to where God intended for us.

The bible tells us that Jesus came to set the captives/oppressed free and I have come to realize that guilt is a form of captivity/oppression. There is freedom from this oppression because Jesus took the guilt away that we may be free. The bible says that God remembers our sins no more when we repent. When we realize this, we gain the key to living a life of freedom, freedom to live according to the promises of God and like the children of God enjoying the benefits. The key to this once more is realizing that Jesus came to set us free (Luke 4:18-19).

God bless you and keep growing in Him!