Some people struggle with guilt feelings even though they did nothing wrong. As an admittedly abused child, popular Christian speaker and author Joyce Meyer carried the heavy weight of guilt for a long time, believing that everything that has happened to her was her fault.
"Guilt traps us and keeps us in the same place; much like a treadmill that keeps us going, but accomplishes nothing. Guilt is a trap that presses us down into our problems rather than lifting us out of them. And as long as we feel guilty about what we do wrong, we remain in that guilt and will not grow spiritually," she wrote in an article for Charisma News.
To get out of this trap, Meyer suggested that people first learn who they are in Christ first before tormenting themselves further with feelings of guilt. She said that God understands fully well that no one is perfect and everybody is prone to mistakes, but that's not the end of the story.
"By God's grace and mercy, when we are born again, God not only forgives us, He gives us His righteousness because the Holy Spirit comes to live inside us," she explained. "We each have right standing with God legally because of the blood of Christ, and even though we sometimes still do things wrong, the ability to do what's right is also in us."
Meyer said God has equipped His people with the "seeds" of His character, and all people need to do are to access the seeds and cultivate them. "You have everything you need to be who God wants you to be, and since God lives inside of you, this means the fruit of His Spirit is also inside you. And after you are born again, you will grow in Christ as you pursue Him daily," she said.
When she used the word "pursue," Meyer meant that people should crave God with all of their minds and strength. A relationship with God should not only be a "Sunday morning thing," but be everything in a person's life.
"We rely on God's grace to help us do what's right every day. And if we try to do what God asks us to do without relying on Him to help us, we won't succeed because we need Him to do everything we need to do," she simply said.
So whenever people feel guilty for doing something bad, Meyer wants them to remember: "You're not where you need to be, but thank God you're not where you used to be. You're OK, and you're on your way."
