Daily Devotions
The Good That Can Come from Guilt
Reading for March 6: Joshua 5-7
Weekly reading for March 4-10: Ephesians 1-6
Title: The Good That Can Come from Guilt
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Ephesians 4:30
Have you ever hurt someone you loved so much that you wished they would just yell at you? You felt so bad about what you did it would have made you feel better if they let you have it. I remember at least one occasion where one of our kids asked us to spank them. Guilt can be a heavy burden.
Some would tell us that guilt is a negative emotion. They tell us we should eliminate it from our lives. Guilt is bad. Self-esteem is good.
However, the Bible suggests that guilt is a good thing. We need to feel bad about ourselves when we sin against God. We need to feel guilty because we've shown contempt and ingratitude by disregarding God's love for us.
We need to think about how God views sin. God views sin through the sacrifice he made for us on the cross. The Bible tells us it is possible to "crucify again" the Son of God (Hebrews 6:6). A friend of mine told me that to keep himself from sinning, he imagines himself walking up to Jesus hanging on the cross and spitting in his face! If we all did that, we would sin a lot less.
Father God, how can we sin against you? In spite of your love for us, we callously break your heart? We bow our heads in shame. Forgive us.
