Many people feel guilty when they believe they have disobeyed or sinned against God. They may differ in their reactions to their feeling of guilt. However, God is always ready to forgive them, and help them with their sins and sense of guilt.
In the Bible, God forgave and helped people deal with their guilt.
Adam and Eve felt guilty after disobeying God. Experiencing a sense of nakedness and guilt, they tried to hide from God. However, God slew an animal and used its skin to cover their feelings of nakedness and guilt. This animal sacrifice foreshadowed the sacrificial blood of Jesus Christ to cover the sins of all people who trust in God (Genesis, chapter 3; 1Peter 1:18-20).
A woman with many sins, came and knelt at Jesus’ feet, cried, washed his feet with her tears, dried his feet with hair and anointed them with precious perfume. Jesus forgave all of her sins (luke7:47-48).
Peter felt guilty after denying three times that he knew the Jesus Christ, before he was crucified. Guilt from his denial caused Peter to weep grievously (John 18:15-27). After Jesus was crucified and resurrected, he allowed Peter three chances to affirm him. The Lord forgave him. (John 21:15).
God forgives and helps us deal with our guilt.
God evidently enabled us to have feelings of guilt, when we have disobeyed Him. The pains of guilt may make us aware that something is wrong with us spiritually, like bodily pain lets us know that something physical may need attention. We can then seek from help from God for what is wrong.
More than hiding and weeping, we need to seek the Lord, confess your sins, repent, and ask God for forgiveness (1 John 1:8-9). Furthermore, we should ask for his strength to avoid continuing to sin. He will cover our sins and restore us to a proper relationship with him, as He did with Adam and Eve, the woman with many sins and Peter. When we come to God for forgiveness he covers our sins by the sacrificial blood of his Son Jesus Christ, who died to atone for our sins (John 3:16). And God strengthens us with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8).
The devil tries to make us feel that God will not forgive us.
After Judas betrayed Christ, the devil evidently made Judas feel he was beyond God’s forgiveness. Feeling guilty and beyond the Lord’s forgiveness, Judas committed suicide (Matthew 27:3-5). He did not believe Jesus when he said, “all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 12:31)
A client of mine, in a treatment program, felt guilty about having committed many sins. He said several times he waded into deep water because he “felt like ending it all,” due to his unacceptable and uncontrollable lifestyle. He apparent was not aware of or convinced that Jesus would forgive him, as Jesus had forgiven a woman with many sins (Luke 7:44-47). He needed to be persuaded that Jesus “is able to save to the uttermost” those who come to him (Mat. 12:31; Hebrews 7:25).
Our accuser, the devil, may attempts to make us feel guilty, when we are not guilty.
In the Bible book of Job, the devil tried to make Job feel guilty, when God said Job was “blameless and upright” (Job 1:1). In his attempt to exploit Job’s suffering, the devil used three of Job’s friends to try to pressure him into admitting he was guilty of having done wrong against God. However, having communed with God, and knowing God deemed him “blameless,” Job was able to withstand the pressure and maintained his integrity.
The devil has tried to make me feel guilty about past failures that God had forgiven me for. He has tried to accuse and condemn me for weaknesses which the Holy Spirit is working on. He has launched attacks in dreams and by foreboding feelings. The devil may try to lay a guilt trips on you, as he has tried on me. A guilt funk could interfere with your communication with the Lord and brethren. And it could hinder your witnessing and working for the Lord. However, what the enemy of our souls intends for harm, God can use for our good (Romans 8:28). God uses our trips and trials to teach us that the we should live by faith in the Word of God, and not by feeling (Romans 1:17; 2 Corinthians 5:7).
The Word of God with pray help us in dealing with sins and feelings of guilt.
- God loved you enough to give his Son to die for you and your sins (John 3:16)
- If you should sin, repent and ask God to forgive you, and he will forgive you(1 John 1:8-9).
- Seek to love and obey God with all you heart, so that you do not continually sin against him (Luke 10:27).
- Submit yourself to God; and resist the devil (James 4:7)
- Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world (I John 4:4).
- The Lord will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are stayed on him (Isaiah 26:3).
- Trust the Word of God, rather than your feelings or your understanding (Proverbs 3:5-6).
