The Aquila Report

Your independent source for news and commentary from and about conservative, orthodox evangelicals in the Reformed and Presbyterian family of churches

Corem Deo Pastor's Conference 2024
  • Biblical
    and Theological
  • Churches
    and Ministries
  • People
    in the News
  • World
    and Life News
  • Lifestyle
    and Reviews
    • Books
    • Movies
    • Music
  • Opinion
    and Commentary
  • General Assembly
    and Synod Reports
    • ARP General Synod
    • EPC General Assembly
    • OPC General Assembly
    • PCA General Assembly
    • PCUSA General Assembly
    • RPCNA Synod
    • URCNA Synod
  • Subscribe
    to Weekly Email
  • Biblical
    and Theological
  • Churches
    and Ministries
  • People
    in the News
  • World
    and Life News
  • Lifestyle
    and Reviews
    • Books
    • Movies
    • Music
  • Opinion
    and Commentary
  • General Assembly
    and Synod Reports
    • ARP General Synod
    • EPC General Assembly
    • OPC General Assembly
    • PCA General Assembly
    • PCUSA General Assembly
    • RPCNA Synod
    • URCNA Synod
  • Subscribe
    to Weekly Email
  • Search
Home/Biblical and Theological/A Biblical Approach to an Overly Guilty Conscience

A Biblical Approach to an Overly Guilty Conscience

What do we do when guilt feels stuck in our stomach and refuses to go away?

Written by Lara d'Entremont | Monday, February 17, 2020

Each of us knows the sickening feeling of guilt over our sins. It isn’t pleasant, and sometimes it comes unannounced. Yet, we also know it was by recognizing our smothering guilt that we confessed our sins and trusted in Christ for salvation. Is this guilty feeling good, even though it feels so bad? What do we do with our guilty consciences?

 

Have you ever had one of those cringe-worthy flashbacks? Perhaps you were simply making yourself a sandwich, opened up the fridge to grab the mayo, and the sight of the water jug prompted a memory of an awful conversation you had with your mother last week. The sense of guilt is so potent you cringe, and the heat of embarrassment and shame flushes over you from head to toe, despite the abundance of apologies you have given.

Maybe this one memory plunges you into a list of all the horrible things you’ve said in the past as you spread the mayo on your sandwich. Because of this, you spend the rest of the day sulking over your guilt, wondering if you should ever risk speaking again.

Each of us knows the sickening feeling of guilt over our sins. It isn’t pleasant, and sometimes it comes unannounced. Yet, we also know it was by recognizing our smothering guilt that we confessed our sins and trusted in Christ for salvation. Is this guilty feeling good, even though it feels so bad? What do we do with our guilty consciences? What do we do when guilt feels stuck in our stomach and refuses to go away?

There is a helpful kind of feeling of guilt.

Feelings of guilt are necessary and good at times. Without feeling the weight of our sins and rebellion against the one Holy God, we wouldn’t come to him in repentance and seeking his rescue. If we didn’t recognize the gravity of our sinful condition, God’s call to salvation would be laughable to us. Upon salvation, we are freed from that guilt. When we trust in Christ, we trust that he lived perfectly for us and bore all the wrath from God we deserved for such sin.

But we still continue to sin because of our fallen nature. Each time we sin we should feel that conviction of guilt once again, reminding us that we still need Christ. We still need his righteousness, because we are still unable to obey perfectly like he did. And we still need God’s grace—we need him to bestow forgiveness on us yet again.

Sorrow over our sin reminds us that we need the Holy Spirit working through God’s word to continue molding and crafting our hearts into the likeness of Christ, because they are still far from perfectly imaging him. This recognition of our guilt keeps us in constant dependence on God.

Read More

Related Posts:

  • Justification and Counseling
  • The Problem of Forgiveness
  • Don’t Adjust Your Conscience to Fit the Culture
  • My Husband Sinned Against Me—Why Do I Carry the Shame?
  • Understanding the Active Obedience of Christ

Subscribe, Follow, Listen

  • email-alt
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • apple-podcasts
  • anchor
Corem Deo Pastor's Conference 2024
Belhaven University

Archives

Books

Special

God is Holy
  • About
  • Advertise Here
  • Contact Us
  • Donations
  • Email Alerts
  • Leadership
  • Letters to the Editor
  • Principles and Practices
  • Privacy Policy

Important:

Free Subscription

Aquila Report Email Alerts

Special

Letter of Jude
  • About
  • Advertise Here
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Principles and Practices
  • RSS Feed
  • Subscribe to Weekly Email Alerts
Providence Christian College - visit

DISCLAIMER: The Aquila Report is a news and information resource. We welcome commentary from readers; for more information visit our Letters to the Editor link. All our content, including commentary and opinion, is intended to be information for our readers and does not necessarily indicate an endorsement by The Aquila Report or its governing board. In order to provide this website free of charge to our readers,  Aquila Report uses a combination of donations, advertisements and affiliate marketing links to  pay its operating costs.

Return to top of page

Website design by Five More Talents · Copyright © 2023 The Aquila Report · Log in