The source of guilt is the devil. WOW…epiphany!
Making people feel guilty about anything is not a part of God’s plan. The source of guilt is the devil. He is the accuser of people…according to the Bible. God will convict us of acting wrong or making wrong choices, but He never tries to make us feel guilty. Guilt presses us down. Godly conviction brings us an opportunity to change and progress, to become aware and adjust. We are not built for guilt and God never intended His children to be loaded down with guilt and so our systems do not handle guilt well at all. If we have to drag all the accumulated guilt from all our past mistakes along with us, well…we would never make any progress toward true freedom and true joy.
My future has no room for my past. How much time do I waste feeling guilty?… not anymore! This was an important awareness for me as I always, I mean I used to, should have, could have, would have myself. I describe it now as the red pencil syndrome, concentrating on what I screwed up instead of what I did right. I’ve broken my red pencils and have purchased new green ones. Spending time dwelling on past mistakes is something that God has told us not to do. No one is perfect.
I give myself permission to let guilt go. I will focus on what I do right and, by the Law of Growth (Whatever we think about grows, what we forget atrophies), I will start doing a lot more right.
Long live and grow the green pencil!!!