Freedom From Negative Guilt

This is a follow up to yesterday's post, "They're Not Supposed to Get it Yet". In it several statements were made like, "...this time is for ME to OBEY, not my children. God calls ME to train my children up in the Lord and He calls ME to not grow weary of doing good." But what happens when we do fail? And, we know, we all do... For me, I usually fall into negative guilt where I think I've let God down...again...

This Sunday, our teaching pastor, Pastor Phil, gave a good definition of what faith is. He said "Believing God's promises is a daily expression of faith." For example, from yesterday's posted verse, do we truly believe the promise made in Galatians 6:9 that if we do not grow weary and do not give up in doing good we will reap in due season? This is where we can think back to God's attributes. We can remember that God is faithful, God is good, and God is all knowing. As we remember and meditate on these attributes of God, we are secure in the promises He has made and we can know and believe in them. So, in the example of Galatians 6:9, we can trust that God will allow us to reap the rewards of our faithfulness. THOUGH WE FAIL, HE DOESN'T.

The other attributes of God that our failures ought to bring us to is that God is sovereign and God is forgiving. As we think of God's sovereignty, we ought to recognize that EVERYTHING is purposed by God, even the wrong decisions we make. The purpose in allowing us to make those wrong decisions is not to remind us again that we are failures and that we are sinners and be left with those thoughts. The purpose in allowing us to make those wrong decisions is to remind us again that though we are sinners we are also forgiven by God's grace because HE loves us and though WE ARE weak, HE is strong and HE can help us.

Our wanting to please God is not works based if there is a true desire to overcome sin and we depend on Him to do it. I was reminded by a friend that it's our dependence on God that gives Him the glory. Therefore, when I have reacted in a way that is not pleasing to God, rather than falling into that negative guilt that I am a bad mother or wife, and that I have let God down again, I must continue to remember the cross and the forgiveness Christ gives, to remember that I am no longer bonded to sin, and that I DO have the power by the Holy Spirit to do what is pleasing to God. I must depend on God's strength, get up from the fall and press on to the goal of godliness.

We can have freedom from negative guilt. In its place we have HOPE in God's promises and in God's forgiveness. Do we believe?