That's not God's voice.

"And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him." 1 John 4:16

A person told me recently, "Whenever I try to spend time alone, talking to God, or focusing on God, I can't stop thinking about all the bad things I've done. I even asked him, 'God, I'm trying to spend time with you. Why do you keep bringing all that stuff up over and over?'"

That's not God's voice. That's the voice of shame. I hate how badly our image of God confuses people.

Do you believe you've been forgiven? Many people say, "Well, I think so, but then why won't all the bad stuff I've done go away? I guess that I know God forgives me but I just can't forgive myself."

Here's how I try to help people make sense of it and move beyond it to become the person God created us to be .

Accept the forgiveness that Jesus died to give us. Accept it. When you think of the sin, the bad stuff, again, tell yourself, "Jesus has already forgiven me. I am forgiven. I very much regret what I've done. Thank God I am forgiven. I can and will learn from this." What you're experiencing after forgiveness is regret. Forgiveness heals guilt. Seeing how your life is made new through the experiences and lessons we learn, (aka "redeemed"), lessens the feelings of regret over time.

"Satan sees you for who you were. Jesus sees you for who you want to be." - Dr. Bob Laurent.

Comments

[joanne brewer]

thank you kathy for the words of wisdom for the day i do believe that we ask for forgiveness and it is given but yes our past keep coming up i atone it to acid reflux but you are right over time god will give us the tools to keep our eyes pointed in the right direction but i do believe the devil with the past will always be with us so as you always say you matter to god and keep your eyes to what matters to you and as mark beeson consistently says our feet in the right direction as well why do bad things happen to nice people well i do believe that it always will but if we keep vigilant in prayer and keep reading his word and fellowship with those of kind we will be okay take care thank you again for the moment to say ahhhh and then a deep breath and get ready for the day

[Johnny Carr]

That's all good and I believe I'm forgiving. It's when I try to do something that I should be able to do and it's hard. I'm almost 40 and I struggle to learn things. To do simple tasks. Regret comes at me like a storm and the enemy has a party with negitive words. And sometimes those negitive words come out and attack others or someone I care about. Usally it's someone I care about. I don't know why. Maybe it's because I know they love me enough to take it. And then I go through shame and guilt for doing that. That's when I need to pull back or maybe that's where I need to learn not to pull back but to keep going forward. But it's hard to go forward in those momments. Those are the momments I want to go back into isolation and give up.

[Johnny Carr]

One more thing... I know God is love enough to know his voice. It's the voice that always helps me acknowledge when the liar is trying to take me down.