Guilt - the burden to great to bear.

Man was never created to be able to bear the guilt of sin. Mental hospitals and cemeteries are filled with people who couldn't deal with guilt. Man must find relief from guilt or else life becomes unlivable.  Guilt is a result of sins we commit, and sins that have victimized us.  Abuse can lead to guilt and confusion in a person who is innocent.  Satan will use those unfounded feelings of guilt to tear down anyone he can. 

 

Attempting to cope with guilt leads to many things including:

 

1) Atheism: What better way to deal with guilt than to abolish the moral law giver and thus morality altogether.  If there is no such thing as right and wrong then why feel guilty for anything?

 

2) Escapism:  Substance abuse and hedonism are the most common, but escapism can come in the form of anything that provides a means of escape.  Others: work, video games, suicide etc.

 

3) Depression and Mental Illness:  This can be guilt from things we have done or things that have been done to us.  Abuse is a leading factor in depression and mental illness.

 

4) Pride: One way to deal with guilt is to take pride in the sin that is causing it.  Blatantly flaunting the sin is a defense mechanism that avoids addressing the problem. 

 

5) Blame: Victimization is the spirit of the age.  What better way to  assuage our guilt than to not take responsibility for our own actions?  Unfortunately we all do this in our marriages, at work, and in our private lives.

 

7) Deceit: Many people are able to ignore and rationalize guilt as long as they believe that no one else knows. This leads to greater and greater levels of deceit. We can delude ourselves into thinking that we will never be caught. The end of this path is always ruin. (Psalm 55:23)

 

8) Counterbalance:  Many of us attempt to soothe our guilt by doing things for others in an attempt to offset our sins.  As long as we live a good enough life everything will work out fine.  If we are honest however, the futility of this thinking quickly becomes apparent.

 

9) Ignoring it:  (The seared conscience) if we ignore the guilt long enough we eventually teach ourselves to not care about the consequences.  Unfortunately this also means that we stop caring about our wives, families, jobs, and worst of all our relationship with God.

 

10) Rationalization: When we excuse our sin we are attempting to downplay the seriousness of the situation in order to soothe the guilt.  We can tell ourselves that we aren't as bad as others, that no one is getting hurt, even that God has taken care of it so why worry?  This is nothing more than licentiousness.

 

There is only one way we can deal with sin and live freely:

 

First, you must believe that Christ Jesus has died for your sins, that He paid the penalty with His blood on the cross and that He rose again to free you from death and hell.  If you are still under the curse of your sins then you have no hope in this life or for eternity.  Only the darkness and torture of hell awaits you.

 

Secondly, we must reconcile your past sins.  (Matthew 5:23-24) When we are saved we are new creatures, but the past can still haunt us.  God wants us to walk in the newness of life, part of that walk is reconciling with those we have hurt in the past.  God honors this work and can perform miracles in broken relationships that defy all expectations. 

 

Thirdly, we must walk with Him. We will continue to do things that hurt others, the difference is that we must seek forgiveness and to serve others in humility.  By living in Spirit and in truth we can walk freely.