Releasing the Past.
Everyone can be troubled by remembering misdeeds from the past. Guilt is Satan’s playground. He loves to cause endless remorse and guilt, because it divides us from God who has forgiven us.
A friend once told me, “when Satan accuses, it is always in the spirit of condemnation. But when God corrects, it is without heaviness.” If you feel condemnation, then you know the source of accusations is not God but the devil. Why are you listening to him?
How do you overcome guilt and condemnation? Confess your sins to God that you might be cleansed:
1 John 1:8, 9 “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
If you have confessed your sins but still live under condemnation, you are listening to the wrong voice.
God forgets what we have confessed: Micah 7:18-19
18 Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity
and passing over transgression
for the remnant of his inheritance?
He does not retain his anger forever,
because he delights in steadfast love.
19 He will again have compassion on us;
he will tread our iniquities underfoot.
You will cast all our sins
into the depths of the sea.
If God has forgotten, who are we to remind him?
My story: Are You Pardoned or Paroled?
Trying and failing to live a holy life, beset by sins. The more I tried not to lust, the more I did. Paul talked about this dilemma. Paul talks about the psychological cycle of trying to live a holy life in the power of your own strength rather than through the power of the One who makes holy and sanctifies you.
15 I do not understand what I do. For I do not do what I want to; and what I detest, that I do. 16 Yet if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good….18 I know that no good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. I can desire what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I desire, but instead the evil I do not desire. 201 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! Ro 7:15-25.
You cannot perfect yourself. If you rely on your own strength, you will fail. But Paul also says sin will no longer have power over you (Rm 6:14) because you are not under law but under grace.
All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Cor 5:18–21.
No Matter WHAT YOUR SIN, God has forgiven you.
Adultery, murder, abortion (which is murder), lust, pornography, pedophilia, incest, theft, homosexual acts, fornication, rape, gluttony, pride, greed, alcholism, drugs, mockery and blasphemy.
ALL These he has forgiven, and reconciled himself to you, IF You will but confess them and come to him. Your sins will be washed away and your soul will be whiter than snow.
If you have trouble releasing the past: give up and come to Him. Let him release it for you.