Answers
By BGEA Admin • July 5, 2023 • Topics: Forgiveness
Q:
God wonderfully saved me and at times, I feel like a new person. At other times, all I can think of is my past and all the things I’ve done to hurt others and myself. The guilt oppresses me and I know that having a relationship with the Lord is not meant to be filled with anxiety but with joy. The Lord forgives me but my mind doesn’t.
A:
From the writings of the Rev. Billy Graham
If people know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God has completely forgiven them, there is no reason to continuing harboring guilt. This is Satan trying to discourage a Christian’s walk with the Lord. Don’t give a foothold to the devil. The Bible says, “God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:21, NLT).
While it can be difficult in our human minds to forget the things we’ve done, the enemy uses this frailty of the flesh against us. Humans are helpless to detach themselves from the gnawing guilt of a heart bowed down with the weight of sin. But where humans fail, God succeeds!
One way is to give thanks to the Lord in prayer for His salvation, remembering when we repented and asked Him to come into our lives and make us new. Satan wants us to forget the graciousness of God. When guilt over things we’ve been forgiven for dwell inside, we have our minds on the flesh and are not exercising our faith that God desires we grow strong in, day by day, year after year.
Read God’s Word and spend time in prayer thanking Him that He has removed our sins from us, “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12).
(This column is based on the words and writings of the late Rev. Billy Graham.)
