It’s not that hard to fool people based on appearance, or the way you act on the outside, but what really determines whether you are living the real Christian life or not is the way you think. We started looking yesterday at mental attitude sins. These are the most dangerous, because they affect your motivation in life.
One sin that really causes problems is the sin of guilt. Guilt is simply focusing on a mistake you have made or a sin that you have committed. Satan loves to accuse Christians regarding their sin:
Revelation 12:10
10 Then I heard a
loud voice in heaven, saying,
"Now the
salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His
Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he
who accuses them before our God day and night.
Satan accuses believers before God to try to make them feel guilty. It’s all about making an issue out of sin. When you feel guilty about something, what is the result? Think about when Adam and Eve first sinned, and felt guilty about it. What did they do?
Genesis 3:7-10
7 Then the eyes of
both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed
fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. (They tried to solve the problem by
themselves)
8 They heard the
sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man
and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the
trees of the garden.
Guilt, or focusing on sins or mistakes you have made, will make you hide yourself from the presence of God! That’s why Satan loves to condemn us.
Here’s the way you have to think: Okay, you failed. Maybe you failed miserably. Well so what!? Welcome to the real world – everybody fails! Think about David. He was an adulterer, a liar and a murderer. When Nathan finally exposed David’s sin to him, what did David do?
Psalms 32:5
5 I acknowledged
my sin to You,
And my iniquity I did
not hide;
I said, "I will
confess my transgressions to the LORD";
And You forgave the guilt of my sin.
Selah.
When you sin (and you’re going to, no matter how much you grow spiritually), all that you should do is acknowledge it, and concentrate on the grace of God. Recognize that God has already given that sin to Jesus Christ on the cross. The way to have freedom from guilt is to understand grace.
You will never be a winner as a Christian if you can’t learn to forget the past and move on. God does not want you to focus on your mistakes; He wants you to focus on His solutions. You cannot let past failures become present handicaps. Forget them, and move on!
Philippians 3:13
13 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,