The Guilt Remover
The LORD is compassionate and gracious, ... he does not treat us as our sins deserve...
Psalm 103: 8, 10
Picture a woman standing at the bottom of a steep mountain. The upward path is filled with impassible boulders. A large weight is fastened to the woman’s shoulders—a weight so heavy she cannot stand upright.
I have just described the state in which overwhelming guilt leaves a person. Unresolved guilt leads to spiritual, emotional, and even physical despair. The heavily burdened are often paralyzed—unable to move forward spiritually and emotionally.
Does this describe you? Is guilt your companion because you have wronged God or another person in thought, word, or deed? Has someone else hurt you and then wrongfully laid shame and blame upon you?
In Exodus 34:6-7, God declares Himself as forgiving. The Hebrew word for forgive has various meanings—meanings that I believe will be helpful to all who are burdened by guilt.
Forgive means to lift. God alone has the power to lift sin and guilt from you, even wrongfully imputed guilt.
Forgive means to bare or carry. God took your sin and guilt and placed it upon Jesus Christ on the cross.
·Forgive means to take away or carry off. Through His death and resurrection, Jesus took the sin and guilt of all who believe in Him away forever.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us (Psalm 103:8-13).
Follower of Jesus, are you holding on to guilt—guilt from your own action or the action of another? Turn to Jesus. Accept His forgiveness. Cling to His power to remove guilt and then move forward in spiritual growth and effectiveness.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you came to set the captives to sin and guilt free! Remove from us the garment of guilt and despair and clothe us with your praise! (Isaiah 61:1, 3)
Jan Burkhart
