How to Deal With Guilt – Dealing With Life’s Issues

I am not a big fan of guilt. It’s annoying! Each time I turn around, something is sneaking round the corner that makes me feel guilty. What I eat “or should not, how much I exercise – or don’t , folks I should have called “but did not and things I should have done today but left until tomorrow “or later on. The list is never ending and so is the guilt and I know I am not alone in what I’m experiencing.

The Baltimore Sun has put together an intensive group of articles their staff has written on the guilt many deal with, covering everything from “mom guilt” to “survivors guilt” that includes people who had survived the current recession with their job still there and people who have survived an aircraft crash when others did not. How to deal with guilt is the underlying question of a culture laden with it, because many lives are being messed up by it.

Guilt is an awful thing. Depending on the reason for guilt, the resulting shame and remorse can make living rather hard, even debilitating if it gets to be too much. There is not any doubt that a lot of guilt is self-inflicted primarily based on excessive expectations by others or ourselves. We need to learn how to let go of that kind of guilt, or better not let ourselves own it. Nevertheless occasionally, guilt is justified when caused by wrong, unethical or illegal behavior. If that is the case, what are the options?

In understanding how to deal with guilt you could attempt to live with it, tell yourself it’s in the past and what’s done is done and move on with what is certain to be a less than joyous life. Or you could try and justify or minimize it, mentioning 30 different folk you know who’ve done what you probably did or worse, causing you to feel miles better in contrast. Or you could spend the remainder of your life doing penance for it? (Plenty of folks do this without realising it.) If you’ve done something in your life you actually regret, you know none of these are good options. Your guilt could eat you alive before you achieve relief going down one of those roads.

A better (actually your sole true) option is to seek compassion from the One who is really ready to forgive you, God Himself. What causes guilt is sin and sin is anything in contrast to what God would have us think, do or say! Hence what that means then is all sin we commit is eventually against God.

King David tells us that in Psalm 51:4 when he says “Against you and you only have I sinned and done that which is evil in your sight” He was referring to the infidelity he had committed with Bathsheba and the subsequent murder of her husband when making an attempt to hide it. Yes, there were folks concerned in his sins but first and most important his sins were against God. As a consequence it was God’s forgiveness that he needed.

God not only forgives but He pardons and that’s where the freedom from guilt comes from. God, when he forgives, officially releases the offender from any further punishment of the offense and He even goes so far as to forget what we probably did. (He can do that as God) Now, there still could be consequences from sin that cannot be avoided; cheating on a test could still result in failing the class, an adulterous affair may still result in the marriage breaking up and lying to a boss could mean the end of a job but it doesn’t mean those can’t ever be forgiven “or pardoned.

If we’ve got a relationship with God, through His Son Jesus Christ, God guarantees us in I John 1:9

“If we confess our sin He is faithful and just to pardon us our sin and to clean us from all unrighteousness” (everything not in conformity to His will in purpose, thought and action). Not only will He clean us but He removes our guilt.

Our culture is very good at managing things we do not know how to fix. We “manage” illness and sickness, pain and suffering. We try and “manage” our fear and anxiety and even our guilt. We spend so much wasted energy on managing things that God wants to heal, deliver us from or forgive us of and set us free. Existing with guilt isn’t the way God intends for anyone to live. God paid the highest price possible the death of His Son Jesus, for your forgiveness and release from guilt. Why then, would He not welcome your request to do so with open arms?

To discover more about “God’s Answer” and experiencing His love which will really set you free go: how to deal with guilt.

Burton Rager author of “Living Life Set Free” and “God’s Answer?” Click to learn more about God’s Answer and receive a complimentary copy of “God’s Answer?”To watch a video to discover more about: How to Deal With Guilt