You Don't Have to Live With Guilt... God Has a Better Way

October 3, 2024

No one on Earth is perfect. Every human is flawed. We’ve all been irresponsible. We’ve all screwed up. The Bible tells us, “Not a single person on earth is always good and never sins” (Ecclesiastes 7:20 NLT).

We all have a “reason” to feel guilty… because we are. BUT, here is the Good News, God doesn’t want you to live with your guilt! There is a better way to live.

Yes, we deserve judgment for our sins because we are guilty for doing bad things, BUT Jesus took the punishment we deserve. In fact, the Bible tells us that He has removed them “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12 NLT).

You don’t have to live with feeling guilty over your shortcomings. Instead, God wants you to live with a sense of promise and hope. He can even bring good out of the foolish decisions that you’ve made if you’ll give those failures to him.

How do you do that? Well, God has an answer to guilt: confession.

The Bible says in 1 John 1:9, “If we tell Him our sins, He is faithful and we can depend on Him to forgive us of our sins. He will make our lives clean from all sin” (NLV).

When you take this step, here’s what you can expect from God:

God forgives instantly. The very moment you admit your sin to God, he forgives you.

God forgives freely. You don’t need to earn it, and you’ll never deserve it.

God forgives completely. He wipes your sin absolutely clean.

The Bible promises that a “man who refuses to admit his mistakes can never be successful. But if he confesses and forsakes them, he gets another chance” (Proverbs 28:13 TLB).

You might have spent years working through a problem that really has a very simple solution: You just need a clear conscience. Jesus offers you that. He offers instantaneous forgiveness!

God tells us, “I will forgive their sins and I will no longer remember their wrongs” (Jeremiah 31:34 GNT).

Satan wants to keep you weighted down under the burden of guilt. He wants to keep you bound up so you can’t live in God’s freedom. But that’s not how God works.

Here’s how God works: You ask for forgiveness. Then God forgives you. But then, he goes a step further and actually chooses to forget what you’ve done wrong.

Are you feeling the burden of guilt today? Remember that Jesus has come to set you free. When you confess your sins, he will forgive you and set you free from your guilt.