| Guilt Free Livin' |
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1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
There is no right way to do a wrong thing. There is no guilt free way to do guilt producing behavior. Guilt will "cook your goose" and make your life miserable. Unless you overcome it, guilt will slowly drive you to ever increasing self-destruction
Wonderful, guilt free living is available to you. It involves five steps.
1) Avoid denial. Many guilt-ridden people deny their guilt and try to bury it in activities, noise, socializing, over eating, alcohol, drugs, rationalization, defensiveness, or seeking the approval of others. Buried guilt, however, will continue to eat at you and destroy your happiness.
2) Realize that your guilt is frequently a warning signal from your conscience (or God) that you are doing (or thinking) a wrongful thing (or things). Don't defend your wrong behavior; don't rationalize it; don't call it "right" or "good". Acknowledge that your sinful behavior is morally wrong and sincerely ask God to forgive you.
3) Base your belief in whether or not you are forgiven, on God's promise and not in your feelings. The Bible says: "If we confess our sins, He (God) is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (I John 1:9). If you sincerely confess your sins and ask God to forgive you, and you forgive everybody who has offended you (see "The Lord's Prayer), then you are forgiven whether you feel like it or not. So believe that you are forgiven and go ahead and accept that you are clean, not because you deserve it, but because God has forgiven you. You are clean and forgiven because God said you are and He cannot lie.
4) Stop doing or thinking about the wrong behavior. Always admit that the behavior is wrong and refuse to allow it in your life any more. Fight it with all your might and if you should fall into that behavior again, immediately stop it and ask God to forgive you. Every time you do something wrong (even if it is a little thing) ask God to forgive you and stop the sinful behavior.
5) Ask the living Jesus Christ to come into your life. Completely surrender to Him and allow the living Jesus to be your boss (your master, your Lord) from now on. Listen to Him; love Him; follow and obey Him every day. Read the New Testament every single day and begin to do what it says.
Guilt free is truly amazing! Thank You, Jesus! |
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