We can let guilt pull us away from God. This devotional reading looks at how we need to be committed to believing God can and will forgive us.
Nuggets
- God doesn’t want us to feel guilt over repented sins.
- We can be determined because God helps us to conquer sin.
- We experience joy when we are in perfect harmony with God’s Will.
We have two words left on our acrostic. I think I am going to switch their order because I am not really sure what I am going to do with concepts.
For that matter, I keep going back and forth what I am going to do with liability. That isn’t good since I only have 13 hours until post time.
So, let’s just start and see where God takes this.
Sin is a liability — within our own lives and within the lives of our churches. God doesn’t flip a switch and make sin disappear after conversion.
We know we are going to be held accountable. Have we ABCDed or not?
But one definition of liability talks about guilt. Ooo, baby! Do we feel guilty at times or what?!?!
Let's Put It into Context
To read devotions in the Habitual Holiness of Heart and Life theme, click the button below.
Here is a running list of nuggets for the theme.
Devotions in the Commit to Grow Our Habits study
Here is a running list of nuggets for the study.
Don’t Feel Guilty
“Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more” (Isa. 54: 5 ESV)
God doesn’t want us to feel guilt over repented sins.
God knew before He created us that we were going to disobey Him. He knew sin would be a part of our lives. That is because evil has always been here.
Let me explain. Pastor Steve and I are listening to an online Torah Class by Tom Bradford. He chased a rabbit in the middle of the study on Noah and talked about good and evil.
Resource
We know that good and light is synonymous with pure. We also know that they all have opposites, because that is the way God created the world.
The opposite of good is evil, and the opposite of light is dark. The opposite of pure is impure.
I am not really sure I thought about this before, but evil was already present when God created the universe. “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the water” (Gen. 1: 2 ESV).
I know. That really doesn’t give us any clue as to the origin of evil.
One thing Mr. Bradford pointed out is that the Hebrews believe that humans have both good and evil inclinations. A reason for that is that God created both. “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things” (Isa. 45: 7 KJV).
What is important here is that we have a choice to make. God didn’t create us to be synthetic beings who are just fancy robots.
We choose between good and evil, light and dark, and pure and impure. In other words, we choose to obey or disobey God.
Since we were created in God’s image, we are drawn toward good. When we choose evil, we feel the guilt created by our disobedience.
Glossary
This isn’t telling us we shouldn’t feel remorse for our disobedience. Feeling remorse is one of the ways we can know we did wrong. It will help us to repent and do things right.
We can’t let the guilt take our hope.
Our hope is in Jesus, Who has brought us salvation. The guilt helps us get to the repentance needed for salvation.
Repentance is acknowledging our separation from God and expressing sorrow for breaking God’s laws and commandments by making the commitment to change our sinful ways to ways of righteousness through obedience.
Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from condemnation and sin to acceptance and holiness and changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
- Obedience means submitting ourselves to the will of God as it is presented to us and living our lives accordingly.
- Sin is not believing that Jesus is our Savior to save us from our actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues and to serve and worship God.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
- Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
- Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.
- Virtues are standards of moral excellence.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues and to serve and worship God.
- Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart.
- Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.
- Spiritual death is the spiritual separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
- The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Glossary
Martin talked about something similar. He said questions about remembering our sins “[These questions about remembering our sins] originate with that consciousness of depravity which is the first step towards our personal salvation, and they recur in connection with the dispensation of Divine mercy.”
Resource
We can’t focus on the question of our guilt. We have to focus on the solution of God’s grace.
Think about what Isaiah was writing about. The Israelites had been faithless time and time again. Yet, God always forgave them when they asked.
God forgives us time and time again — when we sincerely ask.
Think about it this way. Our getting it right and getting it wrong is all a part of sanctification. Sanctification is the transformational process of the mind, body, and soul, which begins with regeneration; gradually changes our nature and morals through the promptings of the Holy Spirit; and ends with perfected state of spiritual wholeness or completeness.
- Regeneration is being changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive and the internal new birth and requickening that God brings about through the work of the Holy Spirit to give us new character.
Glossary
We learn from our past mistakes. We grow through figuring out how to follow God’s Will.
By the way, the widowhood discussed in the verse was exile. The Israelites had a lot of opportunity for guilt because of all the exiles.
We have to put the guilt in the right place and use it to grow.
Be Bold Instead
“But the Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame” (Isa. 50: 7 ESV)
We can be determined because God helps us to conquer sin.
The great thing is we aren’t battling sin alone. God is with us.
- “The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent’ (Ex. 14: 14 ESV).
- “You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem.’ Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, and the Lord will be with you” (II Chron. 20: 17 ESV).
- “For the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory” (Deut. 20: 4 ESV).
- “You shall not fear them, for it is the Lord your God who fights for you” (Deut. 3: 22 ESV).
- “No weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their vindication from me, declares the Lord” (Isa. 54: 17 ESV).
We can’t overcome Satan. God already has.
So, we don’t have to feel guilty. We can boldly do whatever tasks God has assigned to us.
We have to make sure we imitate Jesus when we turn the boldness to the on position. We aren’t doing this on our own.
We can only be bold because we are depending on Jesus, Who is depending on God.
Benson brought up a great point. We have to be bold about doing God’s Will, not our own.
Resource
We can only be determined because God is helping us do His work.
We aren’t trying to get God to validate our belief system or our plans and desires. Benson willful sinning.
We have to follow God’s direction and submit to Him.
Think about how determined Jesus was. I am sure He has some jitters before He got to the Garden of Gethsemane. He remained firm.
- When Satan tried to offer Him something else.
- When Peter tried to protect Him.
- When Satan was asking for Judas as he was asking for Peter.
Jesus never wavered from His mission.
Turn It into Joy
“Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion; instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot; therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion; they shall have everlasting joy” (Isa. 61: 7 ESV)
We experience joy when we are in perfect harmony with God’s Will.
God doesn’t want us feeling guilty. He wants us feeling His joy.
Only God can give us joy. We only find joy when we are following His plan for our lives.
Brown explained how this works. He wrote, “The redeemed man is the governed man; the man who has re-found the King who can evoke his loyal passions, and control and direct his manifold powers.”
Resource
We are back where we belong. We are following the direction of our Creator.
Making the Connections
We have to watch our guilt. We don’t want our guilt to morph into unbelief that God cannot or will not forgive us.
Our belief has to be strongly fixed on what God did do and why. He sent a Savior to our world to fix us. We just have to believe that.
How Do We Apply This?
- Don’t brood over the past and it’s guilt.
- Repent, and get over it.
- Strengthen our belief to know without a shadow of a doubt that God loves us and forgives us.
Resource
Father God. We know You love us. You made that abundantly clear when You designed the Plan of Salvation. You gave up Your Son to be the substitute for us so that our relationship with You could be restored. All we have to do is believe and accept. Thank You. Amen.
What do you think?
Leave me a comment below (about this or anything else) or head over to my Facebook group for some interactive discussion.
If you don’t understand something and would like further clarification, please contact me.
If you have not signed up for the email providing the link to the devotions and the newsletter, do so below.
If God has used this devotion to speak with you, consider sharing it on social media.