Guilty! - Part 2

Thursday, October 6, 2022

When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long.  Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me.  My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat.  Psalm 32:3-4

Dealing with understanding the issues we have with guilt is a hard, but necessary medicine.  We have all sorts of techniques for getting rid of guilt, but, underneath, we still feel guilty.  Frankly, we hardly need to have someone tell us we did wrong; we are hardwired with free will, and that is enough to help us understand the conundrum of needing forgiveness, but refusing to admit we need forgiveness.  We don’t feel forgiven because we aren’t!

When a person simply tries to get rid of guilt for the sake of trying to feel better,  trying to hide the evidence, or shift the blame, we never accomplish what we’re after.  

A little boy was dressed by his Mom in his best Sunday suit – white!  She told him to go outside and wait by the car; she’d be out in 10 minutes….and don’t get dirty!  Thirty seconds later he’d found a bucket of dark green paint and was chasing after Buster the family beagle.  Paint sloshed everywhere, but he just couldn’t catch up with Buster.  As Buster ran for the safety of the front porch, the little guy followed in hot pursuit, just as the front door swung-open wide.  As the now green-paint-covered white suit and green-haired little boy screeched to a halt, he looked up to see his angry Mom staring down at him.  Bucket in one hand, brush in the other, and beagle cowering in the porch corner, the little guy stammered, I didn’t paint Buster!

Until we deal with the source of our guilt (sin) we can never feel forgiven, because we aren’t.  It’s like an elephant in the room that nobody wants to acknowledge.  Sin stands between us and God like a dark green paint stain. 

This was Peter’s agony.  In the Gospel accounts it tells us that when Jesus’ trial ended, they took him from Pilate’s house.  Peter was hiding in the courtyard, watching from a distance.  His and Jesus’ eyes locked and Peter knew he’d denied Christ.  He went out and wept bitterly.[1]  After the resurrection ^{John 21} it is recorded that Jesus had a conversation with Peter that searched deep into Peter’s soul.  It was a simple conversation, but forced the fisherman to deal with his guilt.

In King David’s case it took the prophet Samuel looking the king square in the eyes, calling him a murdering adulterer.  Until David faced the truth about his own behavior and confessed his sin^(Ps32:5) he was never going to be free.

For You Today

When we feel guilty we often default to using excuses for why we did what we did, none of which changes what God has said about our sin.  Sin will always be dealt-with!  And it will always be on God’s terms, never our excuses or denial.  Like the “heroes” King David, Peter, and others we read about in Scripture, there is never peace in our minds or hearts, when we live in unforgiveness.

Tomorrow we’ll wrap-up where to go with our excuses, rationalizations, and denial…how guilt doesn’t have to eat us alive from the inside, like a dark green paint splash on a Sunday suit.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

Waiting in Pain   and   Better Than Guilt   

[1] Images:  via Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] Mark 14:72