Dealing With Guilt

“The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanest us from all sin.” —1 John 1:7

A man sent a check for $50 to the IRS with this letter: “I’m sending you this $50 because I’ve been dishonest on my income tax return, and the guilt is keeping me up at night. If after sending this check, I still can’t sleep at night, I’ll send you the balance.” He wanted to feel better, but didn’t want to deal with the real cause of his guilt.

Ann Landers once wrote in her newspaper column: “One of the most painful, self-mutilating time and energy consuming exercises in the human experience is guilt. It can ruin your day or your week or your life if you will let it. Guilt is a pollutant, and we don’t need anymore of it, or talking about it in our world.”

While Ann Landers emphasized the problem of guilt, she never addressed what produces the guilt. She was absolutely wrong when she said, “Guilt will ruin your day.” No Ann… The CAUSE of guilt will ruin your day. And the cause of guilt is SIN. Until we deal with our sin, the guilt will remain.

The only way to deal with guilt is to remove the sin that is causing it. The solution to the guilt of sin is the blood of Christ that can wash away sin.

When people reject God’s solution for guilt, they try to get rid of their guilt by other means: Alcohol, drugs, suicide, psychological counseling (which is nothing more than learning how to play “the blame game”—Blame your guilt on someone or something else).

If you are dealing with an issue of guilt, bring that sin to the cross and ask God to forgive you and apply the blood. Then walk away free from the burden of guilt.