God: "I looked for someone to take a stand for me, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30)
Recently I listened to a great sermon by Paul Tripp as he spoke about the need to shepherd our children’s hearts. When the heart is ignored and we concentrate only on the externals, he compared it to a child that has everything he needs and wants in his backyard, but has his face pressed up against the fence desiring the junk in the neighbor’s yard. Legalistic parents just try to build higher fences. Christian parents shepherd the orientation of the heart.
Real guilt is the crushing sense of fear and remorse at the thought of having despised almighty God by casting a vote of no-confidence against His word of promise and counsel. Real guilt is radically God-centered. Satan’s substitute is the bad feelings we get from a wounded ego… It is based squarely on pride… This kind of guilt produces no repentance (2 Corinthians 7:10).