Victory Over Guilt (and other devotionals)

Victory Over Guilt

John 3:16-17

At times, people are bound by guilt long after the feeling should have been resolved. Some rightly live with it because they refuse to give up the sin that brought it on. Meanwhile, others suffer the weight of false guilt because they harbor shame that doesn't belong to them. Whatever the root cause of your condemnation, the battle plan remains the same.

Victory over guilt begins with understanding that Jesus took our shame to the cross and paid our penalty. There is no way that we can pay for our own sin. But we do need to honestly identify the source of our guilt and confess before God. That means we agree with His perspective on what we've done. In other words, we admit when we're wrong. Repentance goes a step further: we turn away from the wrong and choose to do right.

Confronting guilt in this way replaces the weight of shame in our heart with peace and joy, which are far lighter and more freeing. And an amazing side effect is that we have wisdom to share. Openness about our past mistakes, resulting consequences, guilt burdens, and forgiveness can reveal the Lord to those in our sphere of influence. Through our witness, God may reach others who need their guilt chains broken.

The battle to overcome guilt is one that should not be delayed. The feeling won't just go away. Whether your condemnation is true or false, it needs to be dealt with quickly. Stop running, and face the source of your guilt. It's time to end your captivity and start walking in the joy of God's blessing.

~Dr. Charles F. Stanley~

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I have chosen him so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just. Then the Lord will give to Abraham what he promised him.” (Gen 18:19)

God wants people that He can depend upon. He could say of Abraham, “I know him, that he will command his children … that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken.” God can be depended upon; He wants us to be just as decided, as reliable, as stable. This is just what faith means.

God is looking for men on whom He can put the weight of all His love and power and faithful promises. God’s engines are strong enough to draw any weight we attach to them. Unfortunately the cable which we fasten to the engine is often too weak to hold the weight of our prayer; therefore God is drilling us, disciplining us to stability and certainty in the life of faith. Let us learn our lessons and stand fast.
—A. B. Simpson

God knows that you can stand that trial; He would not give it to you if you could not. It is His trust in you that explains the trials of life, however bitter they may be. God knows our strength, and He measures it to the last inch; and a trial was never given to any man that was greater than that man’s strength, through God, to bear it.

~L. B. Cowman~

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Ask for Help from the Teacher

BIBLE MEDITATION:
“Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law.”Psalm 119:18

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
Have you ever thought you could just go to the Bible and pull some truth out of it for your life? Let me tell you friend: you cannot do that. Your mind will never comprehend the things of God apart from the Holy Spirit illuminating you.

First, we must lay our intellectual pride in the dust, and with open arms and a heart of faith, approach God’s Word for wisdom, discernment, and knowledge. Then He will teach us.

ACTION POINT:
It took a supernatural miracle to write the Word of God. It takes a supernatural miracle for you to understand it. When God begins to write His Word upon your heart, you are going to lead a supernatural life! Ask Him for that!

~Adrian Rogers~

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Under Pressure

Today's reading: 1 Kings 22:13-28

At the insistence of Jehoshaphat, Ahab reluctantly sends for Micaiah to give him word about whether to go to battle against Syria. Micaiah's reputation of speaking God's truth even if it goes against the king, proceeds him. So when Ahab's messenger reaches Micaiah, he immediately pressures Micaiah about what his response to Ahab should be. Micaiah will have none of it. "But Micaiah said, 'As the LORD lives, what the LORD says to me, that I will speak'" (vs. 14). And Micaiah does just that. He tells Ahab , in front of the prophets and others, that Ahab is going to lose the battle as well as his life. The message isn't received well, but Micaiah doesn't waiver, and continues to proclaim what God has shown him even as Ahab has him taken away to be thrown into prison.

Do you find it difficult to stand firm for God and what you believe at work, school, in your neighborhood, with your family? What helps you be bold for God when you encounter "less than friendly to God" situations? 

~Tami~

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For All People

In today's devotional, I want to give you the seventh reason why the new covenant in Jesus is better than the old covenant.  The old covenant was only for one nation—only one people—the Jews.

The new covenant is for the whole world.  It is for every nation, every people…anyone who will accept the free gift of salvation, by placing their faith in Jesus Christ.  Hebrews 7:25 tells us,

Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

Or, as one old preacher said, "He saves to the uttermost and to the guttermost."
That may sound crass, but it is true!  Through Jesus Christ, God has made a way of salvation for every person, no matter your race, or what religion you were brought up in, or what you may have done in your life.
John 3:16 says,

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.   

That means no one has ever done anything so bad that it could make God stop loving them.  I don't care where they have been, how dark their past has been, or how burdened down their conscience is today with guilt for the things they have done—no one will be cast out if they come to Him.

His blood has the power to wash anyone clean if they will come to God through Jesus.  His sacrifice takes away the sin of the world, the burden of guilt, and the shame of sin.  He can make anyone into a new person.  Only the blood of Jesus can do that…only the blood of Jesus.  Hallelujah!

~Bayless Conley~
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Sanctified Souls Are Satisfied 

"My people shall be satisfied with My goodness, saith the LORD"   (Jeremiah 31:14).

Note the "My" which comes twice: "My people shall be satisfied with My goodness." The kind of people who are satisfied with God are marked out as God's own. He is pleased with them, for they are pleased with Him. They call Him their God, and He calls them His people; He is satisfied to take them for a portion, and they are satisfied with Him for their portion. There is a mutual communion of delight between God's Israel and Israel's God. These people are satisfied. This is a grand thing. Very few of the sons of men are ever satisfied, let their lot be what it may; they have swallowed the horse-leech, and it continually cries, "Give! give!" Only sanctified souls are satisfied souls. God Himself must both convert us and content us. t is no wonder that the LORD's people should be satisfied with the goodness of their LORD. Here is goodness without mixture, bounty without stint, mercy without chiding, love without change, favor without reserve. If God's goodness does not satisfy us, what will? What! are we still groaning? Surely there is a wrong desire within if it be one which God's goodness does not satisfy. LORD, I am satisfied. Blessed be Thy name.

~Charles Spurgeon~