There is an area that I feel we, the church, need to take a very close look at. It is something that keeps us from being close to God. It keeps us from praising God and worshiping Him as we should. It keeps us from enjoying the full extent of fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ. It keeps us from being the kind of witness that God wants us to be. What I am talking about is GUILT.

All to often, we that strive to do the will of God are hampered by the feeling of guilt. This feeling haunts us because of the past sin in our lives. We are not able to forgive ourselves. We are not able to let go of the past. The weight of guilt keeps us from enjoying the full measure of the Christian life. It robs us of the joy that should be the very essence of our being. We need to learn to deal with guilt. We need to give it up.

The first thing we must do is face the cause of our guilt. John deals with the cause in a straightforward manner: "This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us." 1 John 1:5-10 What John is talking about is sin! He refers to it as "darkness." When we have sin in our lives we are walking in darkness. A darkness which envelops us to the point that we can no longer see God. Have you ever tried to witness to someone who is deep into the sinful life. It is almost impossible to get that person to even give you an opportunity to share Christ. And if they do listen, most often they simply reject what you have to say. They are truly engulfed in darkness.

John was writing to Christians who had a relationship with God. He was warning them to stay away from this "darkness." To deny that we are sinners is to say that God is a liar. We should not deny our sin, but rather confess it to God, obtain His forgiveness and then turn away from it and sin no more.

And that is the real crux of the problem with guilt, the desire to "sin no more." Those of us who love the Lord our God with all our being have a deep earnest desire to do as our Savior said to the adulterous woman, "go and sin no more." John 8:11 But try as hard as we might, sin still creeps in. And when it does, we are reminded of the tears of sorrow we shed when we asked God to forgive us of our sins and the desire in our heart to sin no more, and here we are again asking our Heavenly Father once again to forgive us for our failure. Then the feeling of guilt begins to pile up.

The full measure of joy that is ours as a Christian comes from a growing fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ, our Savior and our Heavenly Father. This feeling of guilt hinders this fellowship. This feeling of guilt, left to fester in our soul, can result in the ultimate loss of our fellowship. As an example, I cite those who at one time were a part of the fellowship at my home church but no longer attend. I have tried to witness to some of these folk and it appears that their hearts are hardened. Is this what Jesus was talking about when He said, "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold."?  Matthew 24:12 (KJV) Because of their inability to deal with the sin in their lives and the ensuing guilt, they lost the love they had for our wonderful Savior. What about your love for Christ? Is it getting stronger, or weaker?

There is only one thing that can bring you legitimate burden of guilt. That one thing is SIN! Not just any sin — YOUR SIN! How do you deal with your sin? Do you deny it? Do you try to deceive yourself and others into thinking that you have no sin? Or do you confess it to God – as you should – but then keep the pain and guilt to play around with? It seems that many people like to wallow in self-pity. We say things like, "If I was just a stronger person, I would not sin."; "If the devil would just leave me alone, I could resist sin."; or "If someone would just encourage me, I could be stronger and avoid sin." If, if, if! We must face the cause of our guilt — SIN! Once we do this, then, we can do something else.

That something else is embrace the cure for our guilt.

Jesus died for OUR sins. He paid the price, IN FULL! If we have accepted Him as our Lord and Savior, then we have received salvation and remission of our sins. In other words, we have been FORGIVEN! He has already paid the price for our past sins and our future sins.

Should we do everything within our power (with God's help, guidance and direction) to turn away from sin and strive for a sinless life? YES! Most definitely! This is one thing that we must do if we are to keep the commands of our Savior. What did God tell the children of Israel? "You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy."  Leviticus 19:2 That is our calling — to be holy. To be set apart from the world. To be different. To live a life worthy to carry the name – Christian.

Even though this is our quest, there will be times when we sin. So how are we to handle this sin? Let's look again at what John said to us concerning sin, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9 When we realize our failure, we must go to God in prayer and ask for His forgiveness. Will we get forgiveness? Yes, because God is faithful!

We simply cannot be sinless. Why? Paul tells us in Romans, "We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do — this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it." Romans 7:14-20 (NIV) I think Paul really gets to the heart of the matter here. From my personal experience I can attest that what he says is true. If we really love Christ, sin is something we want to avoid! But, because of the fact that our very nature is sinful, we cannot fully control this aspect of our lives.

So, we should quit worrying about the fact that we sin and just go on with life and have a good time, right? WRONG! That is not the point I'm trying to make. As a matter of fact, Paul deals with this possible attitude also, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?" Romans 6:1 With that kind of attitude, we will be "living in sin" as Paul states here. We must make every effort to avoid sin and eradicate it from our lives. However, we shall also know full-well that we cannot be 100% successful in this endeavor. When we realize these failures, we ask God for His forgiveness and cleansing. We ask for it because it is true and it is adequate.

The feeling of guilt is true. The burden it places upon us at times is undeniable. Anyone who sincerely tries to do the will of God has experienced it. But the cause is false!

God would not remind us of our past sin. Satan does! The Psalmist writes, "As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us." Psalms 103:12 If this is true — and it is — why would God want to then remind us of our sin? The answer is, He wouldn't. But Satan does want to constantly remind us, so he can maintain some kind of hold on our nature. It is also we ourselves who keep the memories of sin going, in part, because we have not forgiven ourselves for that sin. This we must do.

We must FULLY accept the forgiveness that is ours from God. Fully accepting that forgiveness means also giving up the associated guilt that we have concerning our sin. We must start praising God for His grace and start living in the JOY that can and will abound.

Let us pledge now to give it up. Let's give up the guilt. Time won't remove it regardless of how long we live. We can't remove it regardless of the effort that we put forth in trying to FORGET the sinful past we have had. Only the Lord can remove it, and He will. Let's turn our guilt over to God, and then praise Him for being our Savior.

All Scriptures quoted are from the New King James Version unless otherwise noted.