Trusting and Believing: Devotions From Time of GraceSample

Why Is It so Hard to Trust God?
Guilt

It’s really hard to trust God when you feel guilt in his presence. Guilt comes on two levels. There’s head guilt and heart guilt. In our heads we know that we have broken God’s rules for our behavior. But guilt is also the wretched feeling of shame and failure in our hearts.

Sometimes we let God’s Word get us halfway there. We hear the gospel message and know that we have been forgiven, but we don’t feel forgiven. We still feel dirty; we still feel the intense disappointment we must be to God.

You might think, “Okay, I know Jesus died for me, but I still feel like such a fool. I don’t feel worthy of his love, and I can’t claim with a straight face to be holy and blameless.” The Bible tells us that personal confession is a necessary part of healing the emotional baggage of guilt: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Confession is God’s way of getting the poisons out. It’s like draining a wound. It cuts through all the pretending, denial, and defense.

To get rid of guilt, we first objectively hear what Christ has done for us. And then subjectively, by confessing our sins, actually naming them, saying them out loud to our God without blaming others and without pretending, cutting through the denial--then we will get on the path to emotional healing as well. Our minds will know forgiveness. Our hearts will feel forgiven.