Trading Guilt For Grace

How do you respond to this question? “Hey how are you doing?”

My typical response, like most people I encounter too, is “I’m fine” or “I’m good.”

But are we fine? Are we good? Most of the time that isn’t true, we just hide behind our smile and think, “if they only really knew what was going on!”

We hate to admit weakness, or struggles or sins. Some of us live under a burden of guilt and shame, fearing that if the people we know and love knew the truth they would abandon us. What do we do with guilt and shame? Often we ignore it, thinking that it will just disappear. But instead of getting smaller, it can become its own monster.

Many psychological views today diminish the importance of guilt. Guilt is considered as a mistaken emotion based on improper thinking and the best way to get rid of it is to ignore it. However, the more we ignore it the more we are in danger of two possible outcomes: a searing of our conscious where we no longer feel guilty or being crippled by guilt as it takes over our life.

Guilt is real. Not dealing with it properly can affect our emotions. If we have true guilt that we ignore, we can stop listening to the Holy Spirit, stop learning from the Word of God, and we will continue down a road of sin and shame.

Or it can cause us to feel so unlovable, or unforgiveable that we pull away from God, His Church and avoid other believers. We think we are too far gone and nobody will accept us the way we are.

It is important that when we feel guilt we learn to access the reason why and deal with it properly. Guilt to the spirit is like pain is to the body. When the body hurts, it is telling you something is wrong. Imagine you have a skin sore that is ugly to look at and it is beginning to hurt. You can put a Band-Aid on it, but that just covers it up. That sore can fester and become infected. However, if you identify the problem and apply the proper care, the sore will heal.

It is the same with guilt. If you ignore it, it will fester. However, identify the source of the guilt and applying proper care, you will find freedom and healing from it.

Guilt Trips

Now when I am talking about guilt, I am not talking about the emotional response you get when someone plays a guilt trip on you. However, we should talk about that. Some people use guilt trips as a way to motivate others to do what they want. Guilt is not a good motivator. Yes, you may achieve the results you desired, but you have abused power and therefor brought damage on your relationship. You may not see or understand the damage, but it is there.

Employing false guilt through guilt trip may produce the result, but they not only employ guilt, but a strong resentment begins to build. Psychology Today says guilt trips are “a clear form of psychological manipulation and coercion.” Nobody likes to be manipulated or coerced, and when they are, they pull away emotionally.

True Guilt

The guilt I am talking about is the emotion that lets you know something is wrong, or that you did something wrong. There are certainly times when we overthink things, or have a poor perspective that leads to false senses of guilt. Yet the majority of time our guilt is linked to our sin.

King David did not respond to his guilt properly, but ignored it for some time. We all know the story of David and Bathsheba. David suppressed his guilty conscious and it propelled him to go further and further into sin. He was lazy. He then lusted. He then acted on his lust. He then tried to cover up his sin. He then had a man murdered.

It wasn’t until Nathan, a prophet of God, called David out that David realized his sin. He was now able to assess the problem properly, address the sin and confess it to God. David found forgiveness and his relationship with God was restored, however there were consequences to his sin.

Confessing sin doesn’t mean we escape the earthly consequences. Forgiveness means that God will not hold the sin against us, but sin creates a ripple effect that leaves its mark in its wake. Uriah died. David’s newborn baby died. David’s family troubles followed him until the end of his days. Sin has consequences.

That is why it is important to allow the guilt in your life to draw you to your knees and seek forgiveness. God promises in His Word that He will forgive you and cleanse you (1 John 1:9). Psalm 51 has David’s acknowledgment of sin, His confession to God and His desire to serve God as he is forgiven.

False Guilt

Now I have mentioned false guilt on a couple of occasions and it can be tricky to understand what is true guilt, a guilt that is from God, and a false guilt that is self-inflicted or from the Enemy.

Guilt that is a result of the Holy Spirit bringing conviction in our life is identified as being from God in that it brings us to an awareness of our sin and how that has separated us from God. It is not a condemning guilt, but a sense that we need to confess and draw close to our Father. True guilt is a guilt that draws us to God.

False guilt, on the other hand, pushes us from the Father. When you feel condemned, worthless and unlovable, that is false guilt. When you are plagued by guilt after confessing sin to the Father, you are experiencing false guilt.

Exchanging Guilt For Grace

God did not send His Son into the world to die for our sins and then cause us to live in the shackles of guilt and shame. No, He demonstrated His love for you to draw you into a grace-filled relationship, one of freedom not condemnation.

When you sense guilt, what are you going to do about it? Ask yourself what is the source of your guilt, is it true guilt or false guilt? Confess it to God and live in confidence knowing that Jesus paid for your sins and welcomes you with open arms.

When you find freedom in Christ and are released from guilt you will be free to praise God! Listen to what David said as he found forgiveness:

“O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.” – Psalm 51:15

Project Shine - A Great Start!

What a week!! It is Project Shine week and we are having a blast right now at Clay’s Park!

A Great Start!

This week started unlike any year at Shine. Honestly, I was a bit conflicted coming Sunday night as our Cleveland Cavs were in game 7 of the Championship. A game in which they were attempting to come back from a 3-1 deficit and overthrow a 52 year winning drought in Cleveland. The stakes were high in the sports world.

Yet the stakes were even higher at Project Shine! And the excitement began building in my heart for this week! Our theme this world is Humbled, United, Love out of Philippians 2:1-16. As we gathered at Goss church Sunday night, I resigned myself to following up with the game through our many media outlets later and began to think of the eternal significance of this week’s events. Live’s are going to be changed, souls are going to be saved and God is going to be glorified this week at Shine! (Matthew 5:16).

Although a championship would be awesome and would bring an impact on our region, this week at Shine is about impacting souls for eternity. As Josh Miller began to unpack the message from Philippians my soul was set at ease, as it was confirmed that I was in the right spot. Better to be in the house of the Lord, praising our Savior with a bunch of teenagers and hearing from the Word than anywhere else!

It is always a sweet moment when you realize God is reprioritizing things in your heart. I was being selfish and wanting my own way, but learning to humble myself, trust God and serve Him proved to be the best. Not too long after I reoriented my thinking, Pastor Kevin got up and said, “after some awesome worship and lesson time, Project Shine will be ‘All In’!” Yep, we watched the game at Project Shine.

The worship time was amazing. The lesson was challenging and transforming. It was a great kick off to our week and talked about the importance of being united, having the same mind and not conforming to the pattern of this world. It was eternal truth and the Shine crew were soaking it in.

After our worship time, we headed to the youth room and turned the Cavs game on in the 2^nd quarter. God is so good! As I decided to honor God with my choices and my attitude, He showed up in worship and granted me the opportunity to watch the game. Not only that, but it was so amazing watching the game with the Shine crew!! I will never forget the energy in that room!

Being able to witness the Cavs win was awesome! Being with the Shine crew was awesome! Realizing that we are going to party in Heaven in a way that will be so much greater and more awesome than any championship, even the first one after 52 years! 

First Two Days!

It has been a hot and sunny couple of days at Project Shine. Veda, Josey, Tommy, Andrew, Spencer, Jeremy, Devin and I are representing Lakeside. We have all been put on different crews painting houses, decks and landscaping. I am proud of our crew as they put forth a lot of hard work! Keep it up!

Parents you would be so proud to see your child working hard, climbing ladders and learning how to be a part of the crew! We are making new friends and having a blast.

Day Off!

After two long days in the heat, Project Shine shuts down for a day and goes to Clay’s Park to cool off and get refreshed! It was a beautiful day!

Thanks for your prayers as we try to wrap up our projects by Friday!

Leaving the Shadows

Most people are afraid of the dark on some level. For some it’s a phobia that is crippling, and others its mildly disconcerting, but yet there is a level of fear. It’s in the dark that our imagination can run wild. Every noise our shadow brings about expectations of our worst nightmares.

At summer camp, when I was a child, there was a team building exercise about overcoming fear, but it was at night in the dark. We would lineup with a counselor in the front and a counselor in the back and our whole cabin in between had to hold on to a rope. We hiked the trails without flashlights trusting our counselor to keep us on the path.

As you spend time in the darkness at night, your eyes begin to adjust to the darkness and you can make out shadowy images of your surroundings. The stars would come out and help some on the open trail. We would arrive at a stretch of trail that went through thick trees and stop. The lead counselor would tell us to wait here as he walked into the pitch black forest. Then one by one, the remaining counselor would have us drop the rope and walk, not run, into the unknown until we found our leader.

I am one who doesn’t scare easily. I thought it was no big deal and couldn’t understand why some of my cabin mates were almost crying. So I would volunteer to go first. It was as I stepped into the abyss that I began to second guess my confidence. I had fight the urge to run. As the darkness enveloped me the hairs on the back of my neck stood at attention and I could hear my heart beating. Every ghost story flooded through my mind. The crickets were screaming at me and I heard a twig snap. I imagined big foot or a warewolf would snatch me. I too began to succumb to my fears until…

A dark form was ahead of me in a clearing. Once again I could see starlight and the silhouette of my counselor became clearer. Relief! Then denial that I was ever afraid and the desire to go scare my cabin mates. Fortunately I once again suppressed my desire and I began to yell back, “I made it safely you can do it too!”

What is it about darkness that brings out our worst fear? A better question, why is the light so comforting?

These images of light and darkness are familiar to the Biblical story. It is a parallel that Jesus would use to describe Himself as the Light and use darkness as a picture of sin. The Word of God describes this whole world as being dark because of sin.

We live in a dark world and the result is that our eyes have adjusted to the darkness. We see things, but they are only shadows or silhouettes of what is really there. We may not recognize it, but apart from Jesus, we are living lives in that stretch of darkness between clearings. We are so desperate, alone and afraid, jumping at every noise searching for something, but not knowing what it is.

Jesus entered this dark world to bring light and life. He knew we were trapped and wandering in darkness. He is the light that brings life to us, and the darkness cannot overcome Him (John 1:4-5). He calls to us to come out of the darkness and into the light!

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12 ESV)

Leave the abyss, the vast void of shadows and see for the first time. When we trust Jesus, our eyes our open, the veil is lifted and we can see for the first time. The world cannot understand this apart from Christ.

Going on a day hike, I remember crossing over the first clearing and arriving at the same point we had to begin our courageous walk in the darkness. In the day light it looked like a joke. At night it looked like the dark fortress of Saruman, in the daylight it was a beautiful glade. At night it seemed like miles, in the daylight it was only a dozen or so yards. At night it was a gauntlet of nightmares, in the daylight there was nothing to fear.

The landscape didn’t change. The same trees were there. The clearings were the same distance apart. Darkness didn’t change the landscape, the Light only revealed the truth.

When we trust Christ as our Savior, we begin to see the same things in our lives. In the darkness our fears reign, in Christ our Lord reigns.  The reality is, we are humans living in a dark world, the landscape doesn’t change, only we have the Light to walk with us.

As we begin to navigate life by walking the Light, we will live transformed lives. Our obedience to our Savior means that we will have a different attitude about everything. No longer can we hold to the distorted views of the shadows, but must trust the revelation the Light brings. This life is no longer to be lived by fears or selfishness, but to be lived in a confident dependence upon our Savior and selflessly given to others. When we allow the Light to transform our lives, we will cause the people still living in the darkness to wonder and give glory to our Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16).

Have you trusted the Light? If you are a follower of Christ, are you still living with eyes trusting the distorted shadows or are you allowing the Light to transform your vision. Jesus came to show us the true life, don’t trust the shadows (John 10:10).