This is how we know that we belong to the truth and reassure our hearts in his presence even if our hearts experience a sense of guilt. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. ––1 John 3:19-20
Guilt is a feeling. This is how we feel when the moral conscience within us has been violated. The conscience within us is given to humans only.
This is evidenced by our ability to choose between right and wrong. The natural way to treat guilt is to replace that emotion or feeling with something else. I don’t have to go into the many different thoughts and actions of how this natural process is done. Just change the channel.
Satan knows that this defective ability or gene in our DNA is a place where he can totally destroy our ability to walk upright by bringing us down through our thought process. After all, he is called “the great dragon and deceiver.”
The question remains: How long we are going to just lay there, bloodied by the deceitful one? Here’s where the wonderful gift of choice comes in. It starts when we choose to believe in the total forgiveness of our sin, past, present and future—which, by the way, most of us don’t have a handle on.
Once we concentrate on forgiveness rather than guilt, God swoops in and fills us with His confidence. This lesson is of major importance. You can’t be guilty and joyful at the same time. Think about it. It’s just not possible. My friend’s wise dad used to say, “You can’t be angry and wrong at the same time.” (Think about it.) This is the converse of that: When the joy—genuine, unfiltered—of the Lord is in you, it pushes out the dross and dread.
God’s word shows us in the Old Testament that we just can’t do it. In the New Covenant Jesus shows us that it has been done. You have been given the ability to immediately overcome guilt. Not only has your sin been removed but your guilt has been removed.
Do you believe it? If you struggle with this concept, give it up to God. Pray about it for a while; share your struggles with a trusted brother. Eventually, the light will penetrate your doubt. You can bank on it.
