Guilt

Once again I was looking through pictures today and came across this one(the one posted below), this is a picture of my pure bread black lab, Goliath (meaning behind name…largest of eleven puppies, giant). Since you don’t know my dog, this is his guilty face. I was out fishing with my dad (because fishing is a fabulous hobby…I’m not kidding) and my dog likes to swim instead of fish. He decided after getting in trouble for going into the water too soon (meaning that he scares the fish away when he jumps and paddles everywhere, and it can be upsetting if you are just starting to fish in that particular spot)…anyways Goliath decided that he would get even, I guess, and take his wet, dog smelling, not so clean body and place it in the driver side of the F-150 pick up truck. I thought it was hysterical…I didn’t have to sit in that seat on the way home…lol, but my dad did….the expression on my dog’s face was priceless…he knew that he had been caught doing something he shouldn’t have been doing when I took the picture. (isn’t this so true in our own lives?) Your probably wondering what is the point of this, is there another meaning that I am heading for other than just a story about my puppy….of course there is.
I know that there are things in my life that I’m not so proud of, that I feel guilty about after the moment passes or even while it is happening. Going out with the girls to have a night on the town, hurtful words, and physical temptation, along with many others. These sins burden me and I can pray and pray about them and ask for forgiveness, but sometimes I still get the feeling of guilt that lingers around. I know that the Lord God forgives my sin for it is written “ Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sins the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit.” Psalm 32:1-2. However, in Jeremiah 2: 22 it says “ Although you wash yourself with soda and use and abundance of soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me.” To me this just means that I need to whole heartily give my sins unto Him for there is never a burden to heavy for the Lord, he has forgive our sins and the sins of the world. There are so many verses in the Great Book that talks about our sins, transgressions, guilt, I encourage you to read some of them like…Psalms 51 and Hebrews 10:22. At RUSH the “sin box” to me was a great idea and was really helpful. For those of you who don’t know what a “sin box” is, it is something that you write down the sins that are burdening you and fold them up and later they are all burned it symbolizes that they are gone if we just give them over to God. I have a tendency to write down things that are really bothering me, I pray for them most of the time more than once and then rip the paper to shreds (burning is not so safe inside..) I know that there are things it will just take time to get over, things that I hang on to because they helped me make it through other things, with the help of Christ of course. We weren’t made to carry around that much baggage, the baggage of sin….but it doesn’t stop us from thinking we can each take on the world by ourselves.
DEAR HEAVENLY FATHER YOU ARE A MIGHTY GOD, I HAVE SO MANY THINGS IN MY LIFE THAT I AM SORRY FOR LORD AND I GIVE THEM OVER TO YOU, I ASK FOR FORGIVENESS FROM THOSE SINS THAT ARE STILL LINGERING IN MY HEART, LORD IF IT IS YOUR WILL. LORD I KNOW YOU HEAR ME WHEN I’M CALLING OUT TO YOU, YOU HEAR ME IN MY TIME OF TROUBLE, YOU FORGIVE MY SINS AND THE SINS OF THE WORLD BECAUSE WE ARE YOUR CHILDREN. YOUR GRACE IS SO IMMENSE AND LOVING LORD. THANK YOU FOR ALL OF THE BLESSINGS YOU HAVE BESTODE UPON US ALL LORD. AMEN.
Loving Peace,
Kristy