Guilt and Blame

 

Guilt and Blame

 

Guilt – the fact of being responsible for wrongdoing or a crime. The feeling of responsibility for having done something wrong.

 

Blame – to hold someone or something at fault. To find fault with censure.

You often see in the course of life a need, want or desire in the resolution of conflict to place blame or to name someone or something guilty on an alleged violation or breach of conduct or behavior associated with a specific act or a series of acts.

 

What does the Lord tell us about finding blame or placing blame?

 

Hebrews 10:30 – It is mine to avenge, I will repay and again. The Lord will judge his people. It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Matthew 7:1 – Do not judge others or you too will be judged. Matthew 18:21, 22 – Lord how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times? Jesus answered, I tell you not seven times, but seventy seven times.

 

When someone sins against you, we are not called to find and place blame, find fault or find someone guilty of the violation, we are called to forgive them and forget about it.

 

Everyone sins; none of us is perfect, except Jesus.

 

Forgiveness requires no “I am sorry”.

 

When you have sinned against another it is important to go to that person and acknowledge your transgression accepting responsibility for your action.

 

It is important for the alleged victim or person who has been transgressed to forgive and forget.

 

It is not enough to just say to the person I forgive you it is equally important for both parties to come before the Lord, one to seek forgiveness of his sin or transgression and the other to ask the Lord to forgive the transgressor.

We can break the cycle of sin and transgression against another if we forsake our sinning ways.

 

Forsake – to give up, forswear. Abandon or desert.

 

In Isaiah 55:7 – Let the wicked forsake his way.

Are we called to lay blame?

 

No.

 

To find fault?

 

No.

 

To judge?

 

No.

 

To mete out a consequence?

 

No.

 

To level a charge?

 

No.

 

To find guilt?

 

No.

 

What are we called to do?

 

Love.  Matthew 22:39 – Love your neighbor as yourself.

 

Live in Peace. 1 Corinthians 7:15 – God has called us to live in peace.

 

Live in harmony. Romans 12:16 – Live in harmony with one another.

 

1 Peter 3:8-10 – Live in harmony with one another, be sympathetic, love as brothers, and be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil for evil, or insult with insult, but with blessing.

 

We are called to turn the other cheek. Matthew 5:39 – Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

 

When we live with the light and love of our Lord in our hearts we will not sense a desire to find fault, place blame rather we will feel compassion and love knowing the other person is experiencing a transgression against the Lord and is suffering.

 

We should feel sympathy, compassion, love and pray that the Lord forgives them of their transgression.

 

The Lord does not us to cause any one to stumble. 1 Corinthians 10:32 – Do not cause anyone to stumble.

 

That is why we love and forgive when some else transgress against us.

 

If we repay them with anything but love and forgiveness we too are sinning against the Lord and we may also inflict more injury and insult on the situation.

 

Let the Lord avenge, vengeance is mine say the Lord. Deuteronomy 32:35 – It is mine to avenge, I will repay.

 

How does he repay someone who transgresses against another and does not accept responsibility or ask for forgiveness?

 

His spirit leaves them, they live in darkness, pain, misery and suffering, they will live in a state of confusion, unaware of that which will bring them peace, joy and happiness. Their eyes and minds will be blinded and they will not be able to see or hear the Lord. They will continue to sin and their sinful ways will lead them to their own destruction, death and eternal damnation in the fiery pit of hell.

 

Let God avenge those who transgress against you.

We are called to love the Lord with all our heart and serve him and love our neighbor as our self.

 

None of us wants to feel pain, misery or suffering.

 

So stop fuelling the fire by love and service, by sympathy and compassion, by forgiveness and forgetting, by knowledge, understanding and wisdom, by the light and life of Jesus.

 

Pray continually means to be mindful every second of everyday that the spirit of the Lord rests in you, that you are a holy temple, that you are not your own and that the Lords will is to use you to bring about his purpose and his plan which is to bring about the immortality and eternal glory of all men.

 

When someone transgresses against you they are not transgressing against you, but the Lord. For the spirit of the Lord lives with in you, you are a manifestation of the Lord.

 

That is why every thought, word and deed you think, say and do is critical important – you all God’s chosen. A holy vessel, you are not your own. You have given your life to find it again. You have been saved. The sinful man in you is now dead and buried in the waters of baptism, you are a new creation.

 

2 Corinthians 5:17 – Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old one has gone, the new one has come. No longer are we called Bill or Jim or Bob, we are now worthy to be called a Christian, a follower of Christ.

What is guilt?

 

A feeling of responsibility for having done something wrong. Guilt is the work of the devil disguised to draw you away from the Lord.

Guilt produces shame, a feeling of uselessness, or a feeling of unworthiness.

 

We feel unworthy to be loved, accepted, respected, trusted, honored, and praised.

 

We have a tendency to isolate our true feelings or intentions so as not to be hurt or harmed in any way.

 

When we do something wrong, we want to hide our transgression. Hiding our transgression leads to more and more sin. The more we hide, deceive, lie, others in order to cover up our sin, the deeper and deeper hole we dig for our self-finding it more and more difficult to get out of the hole.

 

People who live with guilt have not asked the Lord for forgiveness, nor have they forgiven others of their transgressions against them.

 

When you have done something wrong, admit it by acknowledging your transgression, accept responsibility and it associated consequence, ask the Lord for forgiveness and pray that you will be forgiven and then move on with your life.

 

Guilt comes when you don’t acknowledge you have sinned against the Lord or others which is the same as sinning against the Lord, you don’t accept personal responsibility for your transgression, you do not forsake your ways, in other words you keep on sinning, you neither ask for or seek the Lords forgiveness for your sin against the Lord, nor do you seek forgiveness from your brother in when you have transgressed.

 

Guilt separates us from the Lord.

 

Seeking forgiveness draws us closer to the Lord.

 

Guilt is the result of unforgiven sin.

 

We feel guilt when we don’t seek forgiveness.

 

We feel guiltier if we seek forgiveness and sin again knowing that we are sinning against the Lord.

 

Every sin against man is a sin against the Lord. Every sin against one’s self is a sin against the Lord.

 

Guilt is a stumbling block in the way of our relationship with the Lord.

 

Seek the Lords forgiveness and stop the chain of guilt that binds us to death and darkness.

 

When we are baptized all our sins are forgiven. We become a new creation.

 

Acts 10:43 – That everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. Believe it, it is true, all your sins, that is right all your sins can be forgiven through baptism. 1 John 1:9 – If we confess our sins he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 2 Chronicles 17:14 – If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn away from their wicked ways, then I will hear them and will forgive their sin.

 

So what do we need to do to receive forgiveness and thus bury guilt associated with unresolved forgiveness of sin?

 

We need to

 

1. Call out the name of the Lord

2. Humble ourselves before him

3. Come before him in prayer

4. Seek him

5. Turn away from our wicked ways – forsake our sins then he will

6. Hear us and

7. Forgive our sin.

 

Then we are free of the chain of guilt, shame and those associated feelings of unworthiness that come from unforgiven sin.

 

Want to feel love, trust, respect, honor, glory, praise, joy, happiness, peace, comfort, security?

 

Know this Lord wants all of this and more for you because he lives within you, he wants all of this for himself.

 

You will receive all of these feelings along with many more positive ones when you do steps 1-7 as laid out above.

 

Thank you Lord for this insight, thank you Holy Spirit, it is time for me to get down on my knees and ask for forgiveness from the Lord so that I my break the chains of blame shame and guilt. When I do this I will draw nearer to the Lord and receive greater knowledge, wisdom and understanding. Praise to you Lord Jesus thank you for your time this morning, I humble myself before you now and forever, God reigns within me, always and forever.