Why do we feel guilty!
Genesis 3: 1-6, 21 – “Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Indeed has the Lord God said you shall not eat from any tree of the garden.’ And the woman said to the serpent, ‘From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; But from the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it lest you die.’ And the serpent said to the woman, ‘Surely you shall not die.’ For God knows in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good from evil.” When the woman saw the tree was good for food, and a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise; she took from its fruit and ate, and she gave some to her husband who was with her, and he also ate….And the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.”
I’m not going to say, like some people have said that the fall of man was all Eve’s fault, while there may be some truth to that I’m not going to say it. (I’m just joking; I don’t want to get any angry emails from you feminists.)
I want to look at how Satan (the serpent) tricks us into disobeying God, and then how he holds it “over our head” to try and keep us from serving God. Then, finally I want to discuss how God provides for us despite our lack of trust in Him.
Let’s look at the problem. The problem we face comes in two parts, while there may be a lot of subparts; but there are 2 main parts that every problem can be grouped in. Part 1. – Our Disobedience and Part 2. – Satan’s Reminders’
When I think about people who have been disobedient to God the Apostle Paul always comes to mind. (I can hear you now saying WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!) Paul wrote 2/3’s of the New Testament; how can he be considered an example of disobedience? You’re right the Apostle Paul is credited for writing 13 books in the New Testament, but before we had the Apostle Paul we had the Persecutor Saul who Jesus blinded on the road to Damascus, and asked, “Why are you persecuting me?”(Acts 9)
In the early Christian church there were not many (if any) more zealous persecutor’s than Saul. By his own admission he hunted Christians down wherever he found them, and put them in prison; had them executed or worse. There is no account in Acts 7 that Saul threw any stones at Stephen (the 1st Christian martyr), but he was there; and I’ll bet if it could be found out, that one or two stones came from his hand. So, yes the Persecutor Saul should be listed in the top 10 disobedient people before he became the Apostle Paul.
The second part of our problem comes in when Satan reminds us of all our failures and disobedient act’s, and tells us that we are not worthy to serve a Holy God. The next time Satan tries to throw your past up in your face and remind you of all the bad things you have done just throw his future up in his face and remind him of the hellish things that are waiting for him.
We all have a past, and there is not one of us who does not have past regrets. But, we can use our past mistakes to our advantage in serving God. In Philippians 3:6, the Apostle Paul tells the church at Philippi what Satan constantly reminded him of, that he was “a persecutor of the church”. A few verses earlier he said that if anyone had cause to confident in himself that he did, but he said in 3:7 “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted loss for the sake of Christ.”
The Apostle Paul said YES I did all that bad stuff in the past, but it means nothing now. From now on the only thing that matters is CHRIST, PERIOD. The same zeal that drove the Persecutor Saul to harass the Christian church; now pushed the Apostle Paul to spread the message of Christ!
Whatever may be in your past. However you may have failed. Whoever may have hurt you. None of that matters when you come to the foot of the Cross!!!!!
Finally, let’s look at how God has provided for us, even in our sin. Romans 5:8 say, “But God demonstrated His own love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.”
Did you catch that? Let me say it again, “while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.”
HALELLUJAH!!!!!!!!
God knew that we were sinners; God knew that we were going to continue being sinners, but He still sent Christ to die for us!!
If we can ever wrap our brains around that concept, and understand what He did, and accept His unconditional love for us then we can say like Paul said, “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted loss for the sake of Christ.”
It doesn’t matter how many times we’ve failed. It doesn’t matter how many times people have failed us.
THE ONLY, THE ONLY, THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS IS DO WE KNOW, AND HAVE WE ACCEPTED THE LOVE THAT COMES FROM GOD THROUGH CHRIST JESUS!!!!!! When we accept God’s love He makes us into the image that He wants, and day by day we get closer to the perfect image of His Son, Jesus Christ!
GOD BLESS YOU!!!
The image above from the web can be found at:
www.flickr.com/photos/batram/3301231741/
Yes, You Can Ministry 
i have had a hard time with this one through-out my life; guilt. thanks for the reminder that HE is always there to heal; even before i figure it out. and the example of Saul/Paul that he did not look back. excellent study today. i will cont. to catch up with your posts.
Past sins are, I believe, the hardest thing for Christians to overcome. We remember what we’ve done, and we don’t understand how God can forgive us; but we must remember that God put all of our sins on Jesus Christ, and when He cried out from the cross, “It is finished” He was speaking to us and saying that sin is over; it has been done away with once and for all. While we may, and will, sin against(disobey) a Holy God He paid the price for our freedom and redemption.
Thank You, Alwaya for your encouraging words!