Feeling Guilty?

Feeling Guilty?

The trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.

Romans 7:14-17

It’s hard to feel peaceful when you have a nagging sense that something in your life is off kilter. Philip Yancey points out that what psychologists call “cognitive dissonance,” behaving in ways that contradict your beliefs, is often a euphemism for guilt.^a You want to adopt a healthy lifestyle, yet you binge on brownies. Although you believe in the sanctity of marriage, you have a habit of flirting with married men. You value generosity, yet you hold tightly to every penny.

Too often, pop culture still dishes out the tired advice that if it feels good, we should do it. Lots of things feel good while we’re doing them but make us feel bad later on. That bad feeling is called guilt. And guilt is meant to call us to repentance so we can turn to God and ask him to heal the rift that sin has created in our hearts.

Remember that shalom means wholeness. Sin splits us on the inside, so that instead of doing the things we want to, we end up doing the things we hate. If you want to know more of God’s peace, don’t ignore your guilty feelings. Don’t wallow in them, but do pay attention to them, letting them turn you back to God so you can experience the healing power of his forgiveness.

Lord, forgive me for allowing sin to open a rift in my heart and for doing the things I should not do. Help me to seek your forgiveness when I sin, knowing that you love me still.

^a Philip Yancey, Rumors of Another World: What on Earth Are We Missing? (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003), 146.