Sarah a few years back, swung out on to the outer lane to
overtake a slow moving van and collided head on with an oncoming truck. Her
husband was killed on the spot and her son was paralyzed waist down. Years
later, her sense of guilt continues to blame her cruelly over her fatal error
of judgment. A feeble and pained voice within her keeps rejoining with the
truth - that it was just a momentary mistake, which could have happened to
anyone but could she accept that.
A thoughtless, but awful mistake. Each time Sarah
opens her front door and feels the emptiness and sense of failure especially
each time she glimpses her child on the wheelchair, the painful critical voice
returns, killing her with its persistent reminder of her past failure. It has
brought her despair poisoned her career and the upbringing of her son, altering
her life into a living nightmare.
We can be trapped in our yesterdays by guilt and regrets. Guilt
is a negative feeling because of something we have done, or that we think we
have done. The guilt is over sins that we committed and mistakes that we made
and the regret is for things that we could have and should have done, but we
did not for one reason or the other. Guilt in particular is so destructive that
it ends up draining life and hope out of individuals. This is one of the enemy’s
tool to keep people from living in the abundant life in Jesus.
There are many believers who are constantly driven by guilt.
Some were introduced into the faith through the agency of guilt. As a result
they have keep wearing fig leaves to cover their shame so that God would keep
rewarding them with his blessings. Just as many have embraced various church
activities to silence the voice of guilt in their lives, they have become drug
addicts who keep taking harmful substance to suppress their feelings of
inferiority. The problem being that one is never enough. So the addiction
continues.
When people have an innate feeling of not being right with
God, they go somewhere to ”make things right with God.” This is a state of
self-righteousness that does not give us the opportunity to express the life of
God. This has led many believers to experience issues in their health and they
seem to find the goodness of God distant from them.
Research at the University of California Los Angeles
confirms activity in the neural pain circuits, when a person suffers social
rejection. A person suffers pain, when damaged skin cells cause nociceptors
(pain nerve cells) to fire. It leads to depression, personality disorder and
other related issues.
Religion is not the cure to guilt but a wholesome
relationship. This is what Jesus offers is. The most dangerous enemy to the
Gospel is sincere religious practices that suggest to people that God accepts
them on the basis of their spiritual activities.
The dilemma of all religion is the questions that never gets
answered: ”When is it enough?” When am I good enough? Have I fasted enough?
Have I prayed enough? Have I read the holy book enough?” When is enough, enough?
If we rely on outward observances, there is always ”one
thing you lack,” just as the case of the Pharisee, we continue laden down with
guilt and shame. We cant keep wearing
the fig leaves of religion and self-righteousness and still expect to manifest
His glory and life.
The law amplifies our guilt and shame but grace speaks us
his gift of righteousness. This gift should be our clothing, one that radiates
with glory and confidence. Paul described the law as “ Now if the ministry
that brought death’ in 2 Corinthians 3. It ministered death because there was
no perfection in that age. Since they couldn’t be made perfect they had to keep
coming back with their best sacrifices.
Thank God in Christ that has been done away with. He has now
perfected by his death.
“When he said, “You don’t want sacrifices and offerings,” he
was referring to practices according to the old plan. When he added, “I’m here
to do it your way,” he set aside the first in order to enact the new plan—God’s way—by
which we are made fit for God by the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus.” (Hebrews
10:9-10) The Message
God is not looking our sacrifices to perfect us. He wants us
to appropriate the perfection in Jesus our sacrifice. We need to look beyond
ourselves and look to him who has become our very life. All our mistakes and
sins have been placed under the blood because there’s no way that we could ever
pay for it completely.
Stop living in the past and stop putting everything off
until tomorrow. Live your dreams. Start now and you are one day closer to being
where you want to go. Jesus not only paid for your past, he also paid for your
future. You can’t find life in your past. It’s time to move on.
If you stand before God with your fig leaf of everything you
have done, you will never be free from the guilt and shame of your
inadequacies. The only way you can enjoy your relationship and fellowship with
him is when you present yourself to Him the way he has made you; Like the son
glorious in righteousness.
