In recent weeks, I have found the topic of guilt popping up more and more frequently in my life. It has appeared in my devotions, been on the TV shows I watch, slipped out of my kids’ mouths and been in my own heart. Guilt makes us do weird things.
It is often guilt that causes me to end relationships, hide from conversations and often run another direction. It is guilt that will cause me to skip my devotions or neglect my prayer time. Guilt often has this ugly hold on my life and as I meet with others. I find I am not alone in this. Many people have made poor decisions or missed out on opportunities in their life due to the guilt they feel about past situations.
Guilt can often have an ugly hold on us; it stops us from doing things we want to and, often times, should do. Grace, on the other hand, combats our guilt. When we encounter grace, we often don’t expect it and most times we may not even trust it when it is offered.
The concept of grace and seeing it in action has caused me to turn around. Grace has called me back to places that I need to go, to confront issues that I need to address. With grace in play, there is no guilt. Grace wipes all the guilt away.
If you feel the weight of guilt playing on you, I would like to suggest you do a couple of things:
- Identify where your guilt is coming from… and name it.
- Acknowledge the way this guilt is impacting your decisions or actions.
- Look for moments of grace, this undeserved act of love that you didn’t imagine would come to you. It could be just a small gesture or an extra step someone took for you.
When you are able to recognize and fully experience these moments of grace, you will begin to turn around.
