Obtaining Freedom Part 1: Releasing yourself and others from Guilt and Shame

Today I am going back to my archives; I needed to hear this again. This is part 1 of a 4 part series I wrote on obtaining freedom. If this sounds familiar to you then it means you've been reading my blog for almost a year now:)

I think God is on a mission to release His children from the burden of Shame and Guilt. I really mean it: He wants us to walk in the reality of FREEDOM in our everyday life. Jesus died to set us free and yet we sit so entangled by sin much of the time.

So here is what I've been starting to comprehend. During the last 6 years the Lord has done a great job of changing me from striving and living by being guilt motivated. One of the revelations I have received has not only freed me from walking in guilt but has also freed me up to see others in a non-judgemental way and to just love them.

It is all boiling down for me to the power of forgiveness. When Jesus died on the cross, he forgave ALL sins past, present, future. Not just the sins of Christians but also the sins of non-Christians. The payment has been paid in FULL!

1 Peter 3:18

"For Christ also died for sins once for all,

the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God,

having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit."

I think sometimes as Christians we get so caught up in the fact that we still sin, or we see the sin in others and we want someone to make payment for it. In regards to ourselves, we walk around in guilt and shame because we went down that road that we knew we weren't supposed to go down. We think by feeling guilty about it we will somehow "pay" God back for failing Him. But the reason Jesus died is because we would NEVER be able to pay Him back for our failings. This truth then is also true for others. I don't need to make others feel guilty or hold unforgiveness over them because they don't need to pay me back for the wrongs they have done against me. The payment has already been paid in full by Jesus.

Therefore, repentance and forgiveness for a Christian is not about carrying around a burden of guilt and shame but it is about coming into agreement with what God says is true. The Bible says:

Luke 15:10

"In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing

in the presence of the angels of God over one

sinner who repents."

I always viewed this verse as "the angels were rejoicing" until one of my pastors preached a sermon on joy and pointed out that the angels are in the presence of rejoicing. Who then is rejoicing ~ God! God is thrilled when we turn to Him. He is rejoicing that we finally get it and He wants to celebrate with us. His arms are wide open to receive us.

My encouragement to myself and others is to throw off the cloak of shame and guilt and our misunderstandings of repentance and forgiveness. You really will want to turn to God when you see how He feels about you and that the payment has already been paid ~ so move on your sins have been cast as far as the East is from the West. Then when you see how much God loves you and rejoices over you in your repentance it will free you to love others freely! You will want them to experience the freedom that is found by coming into agreement with the truths of who God is.