guilt from your past can hurt your present relationships...

guilt from your past can hurt your relationships in the present. some people refuse to accept forgiveness from GOD. they hang on to their guilt. they lock themselves into a prison as if their paying for their own sins.

a letter received by the pastor of the moody bible church: "i'm 31 years old and divorced. though i fought the divorce bitterly i feel bad because it went ahead anyway and i now feel badly that i have no hope for the future. often i go home from church and cry but there's no one to hold me when i cry. no one cares. i've begged GOD for the grace to be single for HIS glory and to fix my eyes on JESUS, but nothing changes. i continue to fail. i'm a basket case emotionally or on the verge of a collapse. something is very wrong. i'm so crippled and embittered that i can scarcely relate to anybody else anymore. i feel as if i will have to set out the rest of my life in the penalty box."

that describes so many people that i have met. i've met 13-year olds who feel that they are in the penalty box of life. "i've made a mistake and blew it! therefore the rest of my life is plan b. i can no longer have GOD's best for my life because i've made some dumb mistakes. stupid, silly mistakes, therefore the rest of my life is wasted."

if that's the way you feel, you are wrong! there is hope. that is the message of the good news, that we have a forgiving, gracious GOD, the GOD of the second chance. but you've got to give up your guilt.

this could be called the humpty dumpty syndrome of life. "all of the kings horses, and all the kings men, nobody's going to put me back together again." i will be scarred the rest of my life! then you need to meet JESUS CHRIST in a new way. HE is the healer of scars.

so many people are torturing themselves today with guilt and torturing their mate with guilt for things that happened long before they were ever married. and they're taking it out on their marriage today. that's not right either. you have to let go of your guilt –when things you've done have hurt other.

just a thought from the front porch...