RENEW YOUR MIND - GUILT AND SHAME

 

How are you thinking today?

Did you wake up this morning with thoughts of your past sins on your mind and are now wallowing in guilt and shame even though you confessed them to God and asked for forgiveness?

There is a reason Satan is called "The Accuser".  He loves to whisper reminders of our past sins causing us to fall back into shame and despair because he knows when this happens, we start to doubt our salvation, and we begin to feel useless for the Kingdom of Christ.

The Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 3:13-14:

Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

If God has forgiven us, there is no need to dwell any longer on the past because it keeps our focus away from the work God has for us to do.  Yes, there are times when it's good to remember, but only to help remind us of God's goodness towards us when He forgave us and restored us to Himself.

When we sin and the Holy Spirit makes us aware of our sin, it's very important to immediately confess that sin to God (and to the person we may have hurt with our actions), and repent.  We are reminded that God wants to forgive us when we read 1 John 1:9:

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

This is the promise of God that He will forgive us when we earnestly come to Him with a broken and contrite heart to confess our sins and seek to have our relationship restored with Him.

If you're going through a season of guilt and shame concerning past sins and you haven't confessed them and asked God for forgiveness, stop right now and pray asking God to forgive you and seek to restore your relationship with Him.  If you have confessed past sins to Him already, but you're still experiencing guilt and shame from them, tell yourself this is false guilt and remind yourself of God's promise that He has already forgiven you.  Also, remind yourself that it's Satan who's responsible for these feelings and he's trying to strip you of your joy you have in Christ.

We become useless for the Kingdom if we start to wallow in guilt over past sins.  When we begin to experience those feelings, we must immediately push them aside and pray for the Holy Spirit's help to turn our focus away from the past and look ahead to the glory of Christ's Kingdom and the joy of serving Him free from the pain of the past.