There are several lines of attack at this answer:
1. Guilt and Godly sorrow are two different things. Guilt tends to be a self-centered thing. I feel guilty and I want to do something about it so I can feel better. The motivation for dealing with guilt is me and not God. With guilt I am sorry for how my actions affect me. Godly sorrow is different:
Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret . . . - 2 Corinthians 7:10Godly sorrow is different because I am sorry for how my actions hurt/offended God and others. Sometimes we don't sense we are forgiven because we feel guilty, but we haven't felt Godly sorrow.
2. We must trust in what God said about Himself and about us. Look at 1 John 1, Romans 7-8 and many other scripture passages. God is a a forgiving God. Either we accept what He says about forgiveness or we essentially say we don't believe in Him. Sometimes we don't sense we are forgiven because we simply don't believe God can or will forgive us so we never receive it.
3. There is and must always be a restitution step with sin. We don't simply confess sin in a prayer and then walk away like its no big deal, until we are right back in the same spot confessing again and again. Sin is a serious thing and rectifying sin is a big deal too. As much as it is possible, when we experience Godly sorrow and after we have confessed our sin to God, we should endeavor to make restitution for our sin. Here is what I mean. To make sin a thing of the past we should have:
- A sense in our mind, heart and spirit that we would do anything to undo what was done.
- A wholehearted commitment, no matter how embarrassing or humbling, to right the wrong.
- A complete determination, no matter what the cost or sacrifice, to NOT to do it again.
Without these three things we WILL NOT be right with God and we will continue to carry our sins. With these three things accomplished, we will experience real, true and lasting freedom.
Are there any elements you think need to be added to this list in order to make sin a thing of the past? What other roadblocks have you come up against in your spiritual journey?
man this has really got me thinking I know no matter what the one sin that has a hold on me will never ever happen again no way would i or could i do that again so I think that has the first of the three covered and the last but the middle on how do I right a wrong because I think that is the reason why I cant wont say no to a child that needs me in whatever form I know that I cant make up for my sisters death or the other thing that happened that day but I feel like if I say no to a child I know needs me in whatever form then I am abonding that child and something bad could happen again when have I righted a wrong when will I feel unobigated to help child not that I mind I love working with kids some say it is my nature but sometimes helpin a child has caused struggles with my kids or family
ReplyDeleteWeb Article - on - How to rid yourself of guilt. If need be, cut, copy, and paste this URL elsewhere, to read it.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.biblecenter.com/sermons/howtogetridofyourguilt.htm
To 1st post let me offer a quick reply: Please do not mistake "righting the wrong" with a lifelong burden or a hole one can never get out of. Some things we do we can never fix in a literal sense and, then, simply need to rest in God's grace. David in the Old Testament was a great example. He committed adultery and then had the husband, a friend of his, murdered to cover it up and take the woman as his wife. He could not undo that sin literally. The man was dead. The baby was born. What David could do was to plead for and trust in God's mercy, resting in His forgiveness. That is what Psalm 32 and 51 are all about. They are prayers of David probably about that very sin. In that way, David did all three things.
ReplyDeleteM.E. wrote...We're supposed to love one another. Shouldn't that include one's self? Well, yes, we should. If we love ourselves shouldn't we forgive ourselves?
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