Guilt

Good Morning,

Psalm 32:1-5 (NIV)
Blessed is he
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man
whose sin the LORD does not count against him
and in whose spirit is no deceit.
When I kept silent,
my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
For day and night
your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was sapped
as in the heat of summer. Selah
Then I acknowledged my sin to you
and did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, "I will confess
my transgressions to the LORD "—
and you forgave
the guilt of my sin. Selah

Truly are we blessed when we do as the Psalmist and turn to God for forgiveness. But, I fear that there are many among us who carry God's heavy hand upon us because we will not, for whatever our reasoning, turn to God to acknowledge the sin we have in our lives and confess our transgressions to Him.

I'm amazed that we, even though we know Jesus as Savior, often feel that we cannot confess our sin to God. I've wondered about that often, to tell the truth. I've thought about the "why" of people not being willing to simply stop what they're doing at any particular moment and just ask God for His forgiveness. Do we forget the words we read in this Psalm, perhaps? "I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the LORD'--and you forgave the guilt of my sin."

You see, it isn't just the fact that God forgives, because He certainly does, it's the fact that He also takes away that crippling emotion...GUILT. Guilt is that feeling we all have from time to time when we walk around with unforgiven, unconfessed, unrequited sin in our lives. Guilt is what often bogs our lives down and keeps us from being efficient in our daily lives...both spiritual and even just our everyday, normal activities. Guilt can stop us in our tracks. Listen to what is written here, "When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long (about sin and guilt being carried around). For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer." But, it doesn't have to be that way. We don't have to allow guilt to do what it does to us. We have a loving, caring, and forgiving God who forgives our sin, therefore, removing the guilt from our lives.

As in everything in this life, we have a choice. We can be totally open and honest about what we've done...with God, and, sometimes even harder, with ourselves...get on our faces, confess our sin to God, thus allowing Him to take away our crippling feelings of guilt. Or, we can continue to carry around that sin and guilt, wasting away and being sapped of life. Doesn't seem to be much of a choice, does it?

We all need to simply turn from our sin to God. We need to acknowledge the wrong we've done...or the right that we've failed to do...and confess to Him and beg His forgiveness, thereby removing the sin and the guilt from us. Praise be to God!

Love, peace, and blessings,

David