"I'VE GOT ISSUES!" Part Two

Last week, I started with the confession that I've got some ISSUES in my life! Issues are things that get into my heart and when I don't deal with them, they bleed out and affect my relationships.  

One of the issues that I deal with is the issue of GUILT! I don't know about you, but I know that I have done some things and said some things that I am not proud of! I know that there have been things that I carry around with me that have caused pain to others and I can't seem to forgive myself. 

I know that some people associate church with guilt! I can remember as a teenager listening to the preacher or priest speaking, and throwing a big wet blanket of guilt over everyone, and then they would pass the offering buckets. I used to think to myself, "I can't believe all these people are paying money to feel bad about themselves!"

I want you to know that if you read the story of Jesus in the Bible, Jesus NEVER leveraged guilt! And if anyone could have, it would have been Jesus, but he didn't, and here's why: IT IS GENERALLY GUILTY PEOPLE WHO LEVERAGE GUILT ON OTHERS! Guilty people tend to deal in the currency of guilt, but Jesus wasn't guilty - he never sinned - so he didn't need to do that.  As a matter of fact, the Bible tells us in John 3:17:

"God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again."

You see, whenever you feel guilty, it is because an inequity has been created in the relationship. Guilt says, "I OWE YOU!" What was once a friendship has become a debt/debtor relationship where you feel you owe them, and your relationship won't be "normal" again until you repay whatever it was you stole from them. 

The only problem is that often what has been stolen could never be repaid! How do you repay a first marriage that you feel guilty for? How do you repay a reputation? How do you repay "I wasn't there enough for you when you were a kid"? How do you repay someone's self-esteem that you stole through your words?

So you're only other option is to have the debt cancelled! But that requires something that isn't enjoyable and most of us don't fully understand: CONFESSION! 

We must go back to the person that we feel we have stolen from and confess to them and ask them to cancel the debt we feel we owe them! Confessing to God gives us forgiveness, but confessing to the person we feel we owe causes our hearts to heal and change! 

We often don't confess to someone what we have done or what we feel we have stolen through our actions because we are afraid of the consequences of that confession. But the only reason we fear the consequences of confession is because we completely misunderstand the consequences of hiding! When you don't confess, GUILT stays in your heart and grows until it begins to destroy the relationships with the people you love the most! Get it out in the open and deal with it so that you can live your life free of guilt!

If you have guilt in your life, identify who you feel you stole something from - whether it be a son, daughter, parent, spouse, ex-spouse, co-worker, or whatever - and confess to them! Then live your life and watch as your heart begins to heal. The Bible tells us this in James 5:16:

"Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed."

If you would like to hear more about this topic, click here!

-jeremiah

Lead Pastor
Westbridge Church