“I Feel So Guilty”

I will go away {and} return to My place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me. --Hosea 5:15

I must admit where I am before I can leave where I am.I must own something to disown it, possess to dispossess! Many suffer from guilt. There are many genuinely afflicted believers who need the revelation that Jesus takes away guilt and forgives and that there is no obstacle between them and Him. However, there are several reasons why guilt feelings sometimes will not leave, and those are what are addressed in this article. For one thing, for all of the believers who lack understanding of God’s willingness to forgive, there are an equal number who only feel guilty because of what the revelation of their sin has done to their image; it is not genuine guilt. A fellow slandered a brother. 

Later, he began to think that the brother was going to find out. He then started repenting and repenting, praying and praying that the brother would not hear about it. He was so sorry that he had said anything at all. However, after talking with him I discovered that he was not nearly so concerned that someone got the wrong impression about the disparaged brother as he was that others might get the wrong impression of himself as a slanderer! The guilt was merely based in self-image. Sometimes guilt is just a feeling with no center, as if the enemy wants we believers wallowing in insufficient joy. 

However, there are times when guilt is not relieved because there has not been true confession, which does not consist of going around telling everyone what terrible persons we are. True confession is to God for an offense against Him.I have heard people say, “Jesus, I confess that I made such a fool of myself.” What does that have to do with Jesus? That is embarrassment, self, and flesh. If we were not living to men, how would we know that we made fools of ourselves? Proverbs 28:13 states, “He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes {them} will find compassion.”

Michael gives us some basic insights into dealing with the emotion of “guilt.”  This is a very important discussion for MANY.  Take to heart every word Michael has given us in this Day 151 writing.

I am grateful that I learned a long time ago that God wants to heal emotional “hooks” the enemy has gotten in Believers, as much as God wants to heal the actions we either committed or that others committed against us.  Prayer asking God to heal these emotional hooks is very effective.

Confession, then Asking Forgiveness (never Apologizing…that word is not in God’s vocabulary!), then Forsaking (if needed), then Reconciliation…this is God’s way for us to initially act when facing guilt.  But, often, the need for healing of the emotional hooks is what is missing in Christians’ lives.