Have you ever struggled to focus on God because of the feeling of guilt?

Guilt knows how to ruin joy, commitment and ability to receive God's love.

Since childhood, I've been sensitive to every little mistake I made. I used to think about it for days until I couldn't look at myself in the mirror.

Has guilt made me grow in my character?

No, it brought a lot of hopelessness and shame.

Its reign ended when I realized the need to identify, act and move on. If I ever sit down to read the Bible and feel guilty about a mistake I made, I apply this formula:

Identify - Act - Move On

Let me explain it in greater detail.

Identify the Source of Guilt

One morning, as, I sat down to read the Bible something felt off.

I felt guilty as if I had done something wrong. As I looked through my heart and reflected on yesterday, I remembered having a bad attitude when I met with a friend. I pretended to be fine, but inside, I was complaining.

When you sit down to spend time with God but feel a sense of guilt, think through your past actions and pinpoint the specific one causing you regret.

My guilt came from having a bad attitude.

Make the Choice to Act

Once you identify the source of guilt, you can respond to it properly.

To deal with guilt effectively, you have to make things better. That’s when guilt can be changed into a motivation to make better choices. When I knew that I felt guilty for having a bad attitude I had a few options:

• I could contact my friend and apologize,

• forgive myself and move on as if nothing happened

• analyze the root cause of my bad attitude and solve it so it doesn't happen again.

The goal is to improve, not to stay in the phase of guilt. We improve when we take action. We get stuck when we think of negativity without a goal.

Leave the Wrongdoing in the Past

This step is crucial - if you skip it, you’ll hinder your growth and ability to improve.

Guilt can make us blame ourselves, but it never helps us grow in character. Guilt creates negative emotions. If we don't take action we will feel worse and open doors to insecurities, hurts and fears, which in turn lead us to deeper sin as we try to cover our pain.

Guilt should only point out the wrongdoing, not torture you. Once you realize the wrong action and make a plan to fix it, guilt has no right to bother you.

When you realize the wrong, take action, and then leave the guilt in the past.

Last Thoughts

When you identify, act, and move on, you allow your heart to grow in righteousness.

This is how you focus on God, grow in character and leave mistakes in the past. Guilt won’t drown you in negativity but provide feedback on where you need to grow.

Once you make changes, you can move on and spend time with God without shame.

Embrace God, not guilt.

Thank you for taking the time to read this! It means a lot to me!

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