During a heated argument, a young Arab struck and killed another young man, and then fled for protection to the tent of their tribal chief! He confessed his crime to the chief who accepted him into safe refuge. The next day, others came searching for the fugitive, but the chief wouldn’t hand him over! “Do you know who he’s killed?” they asked. “He has killed your only son!” The chief at first was filled with confusion, but then he looked at the young man and said, “You have killed my son, and therefore I am going to make you my new son and you will inherit everything I have! This story reached a nearby Christian hospital, where the patients recognised the parallel between what the chief had done for the young man, and what God has done for us through the sacrifice of Jesus!
There are 4 ways we can respond to our guilt: 1. Deny it; 2. Dump it on someone else; 3. Die with it; or 4. Deal with it!
1. Deny it: In Psalm 32:1, King David says, “Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered!” David himself admits in this chapter that “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long! (Doctors report that lack of social interaction – caused by guilt? – can result in osteoporosis which involves a wasting of the bones!)
Many times we try to deny or justify our guilt but this only makes the problem worse! David adds that while he continued to deny his sin and guilt, the hand of God was heavy upon him and his strength was sapped “as in the heat of summer!” In Psalm 38:4 he says, “My guilt has overwhelmed me, like a burden to heavy to bear!”
Moses says in Numbers 32:23, “You may be sure your sin will find you out!” It may appear to be buried and forgotten, but sin has a habit of surfacing, as in the story of the Spanish ship Nancy. The Nancy was captured by a British ship called the Sparrow in the Caribbean in 1799. While no evidence of smuggling was found on board, another ship captured a shark, which when opened was found to contain a bundle of papers of incriminating evidence which had been thrown overboard by the captain, and which convicted the captain and crew of the Nancy!
Denial of sin and is not a solution to it! Instead we need to find David’s solution! After his above experience in Psalm 32 he says, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord – and you forgave the guilt of my sin!”
2. Dump it on someone else: Adam and Eve discovered this trick the moment God confronted them with their guilt! In Genesis 3, Adam blames Eve and Eve blames the serpent! (And some people add that the serpent didn’t have a leg to stand on!) But blaming someone else won’t really make guilt disappear! It will just make the situation worse!
In primary school, I was regarded as a goodie goodie, but one day, I felt like causing trouble by showing my neighbour some ridiculous cartoons, while we were supposed to be reading! He began to giggle, and I giggled with him until the teacher finally said, “What are you doing Ken???” Horrified at being caught, I said, “Geoffrey is making me laugh, Miss!” At this she ordered Geoffrey out the front of the room and proceeded to cane him until he cried! I was a coward and a liar and a false accuser. Fortunately, Geoffrey eventually forgave me, but he probably wondered whether he could ever trust me again! In Psalm 41:9, David says, “Even my close friend, whom I trusted, has lifted up his heel against me!”
On a more positive note, I once attended a church on Good Friday, where we were each asked to write our sin of greatest guilt on a piece of paper and then pin it to the cross which had been erected at the front of the church for the occasion. We were reminded that through His death on the Cross, Jesus had paid the penalty for each of these sins, and that He had taken the guilt on Himself! Jesus has allowed us to dump all our guilt on Him!
3. Die with it: Judas Iscariot felt so much guilt that he hanged himself – but his sorrow was not so much that he had betrayed Jesus, but rather a feeling of being sorry for himself, now that he felt like a persona non grata (someone who would no longer be welcome to his friends!) How many suicides are caused by guilt or the non-acceptance which often accompanies it?
I once before shared a story told by the American preacher John Wimber, who was travelling on a plane when he noticed the man sitting across the aisle. Wimber could see in his spirit the message of ‘adultery’ across this man’s forehead! The man could see Wimber staring at him and demanded, “What do you want!” He replied, “Does the name Jane mean anything to you?” The man followed up with, “We’ve got to talk!” and he led John Wimber to the lounge section of the plane! Wimber felt God saying to him, “Tell him if he doesn’t turn from his adultery, I’m going to take him!” Reluctantly, he explained to the man that God had given him the name Jane, and that God would take his life unless he changed his ways! He then explained the process of repentance and making a fresh start in Jesus! Then man then went through such a heart-rending repentance that everyone in the lounge section could hear him! Even the hostess was in tears! He also pointed out that downstairs his wife was sitting next to him, and he admitted that she had to be told. They returned downstairs, the man told his wife and led her also to Jesus. John Wimber didn’t have a spare Bible to give them, so he gave them his, and they went on their way!
The man in this story ran the risk of dying with his guilt! While we are alive, we have the capacity to deal with it before it’s too late! 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness!”
4. Deal with it: Ryan was twenty-nine and he once went on a Christian camp where the speaker gave a meaningful and powerful plea for purity! After the talk he met with a small group of campers and confided in them that he had extreme trouble dealing with his sexual desires, which expressed themselves through use of pornography and masturbation. He asked the group to pray that God would take away his sexual hungers so that he would no longer be tempted! But one of the group interrupted his pleas and told him that the sexual drive is a gift from God, and that it was not to be taken away, but properly handled with God’s power!
There is a difference between temptation and guilt! Everyone is tempted in one way or another, but temptation is not sin! Only yielding to temptation is sin! To deal with the guilt of sin we need to confess to God and to trust others! We then need to seek prayer to overcome the wrongdoing and to have the guilt of the past removed forever!
Isaiah 53:5 says that “The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed!
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