Guilt Trips

Many of us love to travel. There is something thrilling about seeing and experiencing new places. We look forward with anticipation to our vacation times; especially if it involves going someplace new or back to a familiar place that brings us pleasant memories.

Unfortunately, the travel reservation we most often make is the dreaded guilt trip. Like it or not, we all struggle with feelings of guilt from time to time. Sometimes our guilt is actually conviction from the Holy Spirit that does require repentance on our part. But more often that not, our guilt centers around past mistakes---mistakes that were dealt with at the cross. John 5:24 tells it like it is: Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my words and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgement but has passed from death to life. Many other verses in the Bible, including Romans 5:17, Ephesians 1:7 and Hebrews 9:14, speak to the eternal security and forgiveness that we have through the shed blood of Christ.

As God's men, we must be able to discern between these two types of guilt. False guilt over past mistakes comes straight from the pit of hell. If we allow false guilt to remain, we will begin to doubt God's promises. We will begin to feel unworthy of his love, mercy and grace. We will begin to become dual-minded and unstable in our ways. False guilt lessens our effectiveness in advancing God's Kingdom and drains the energy we need for more useful purposes.

Drawing strength from our Lord, staying grounded in the truth of His Word, obeying the promptings of the Holy Spirit and not dwelling on past mistakes are the keys to defeating false guilt. And just as we have choices in where we want to travel on our vacations, a guilt trip is a voyage we don't have to book.