This guilt issue follows us throughout our Christian walk. And as we mature in Christ we learn the value of dealing with it rightly and the dangers of dealing with it wrongly. We learn that even though God has forgiven us, we can sense it when not God, but Satan “the accuser” (Rev. 12:10) seeks to remind us of our failures and faults. We learn how to engage in spiritual battle to prevent false guilt from setting in. We learn to not trust in our feelings as it pertains to guilt, but fully stand on the promises from God’s Word. We learn to allow that which makes us guilty to only be the things that violate God’s Word. We learn the difference between real guilt and an overactive conscience. We learn the need to keep excelling in Christ, but refuse to allow the conviction to grow spiritually become a continual self-loathing low-grade guilt that we aren’t doing enough for Jesus. We learn to greater recognize our sinfulness and yet the incredible promise that we can always “draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16).
Randy Smith