THE GUILT TRIP

We all know that from the time we are born again, and begin our spiritual walk with the Lord, there is someone else following us as well. It is the devil – the deceiver, the father of lies, the prince of the power of the air, the god of this world.

It is the devil’s self appointed task to break down and eliminate every true born seed of Christ, and he has many tricks up his sleeve to accomplish this.

One among them is The Guilt Trip or the Rollercoaster Ride of Unworthiness.

The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life are the three weapons he uses at will. We as Christians, can still fall prey to these if we are not careful. It requires only a little gap in our lives, a little slumber, a little sleep, a little folding of the hands to sleep, to let Satan inside the hedge of the Lord’s protection.

Money, pleasures, the headiness of independence will all take you away from the Lord if you let them become a part of you. And they do, unknowingly, unconsciously prey upon the human soul, like a parasitic disease. You don’t actually acknowledge it until it has permeated your system all through and made you ill.

If we have a secret sin in our lives that we have been battling to overcome, or maybe a weakness which had been oh so pleasurable when we were in the world – a weakness that we had enjoyed thoroughly, but cast off once we came to the Lord, Satan tries to revive the dying fires of these sins and shortcomings in the born again believer’s life once more.

Sometimes, it may not be the sins of our past, but new pleasures, which we never thought we could enjoy or partake of - sins which we acknowledged by shaking our heads at, suddenly seem attractive for no thinkable reason.

Satan places pits before us to fall into, a bit of ice on the road to slip and fall on, and many times, even the born again ones succumb to temptation and slip.

The slipping, the falling, the rising, the dusting off, and the repentance and reconcilitation are all a part of a cycle in the believer’s life. However, the problem lies not in the falling, but in the thoughts that occupy the believer’s mind after the fall.

If you have been close to the Lord, and you have committed an act of offence towards Him, then you must know the feeling of first guilt, then remorse, then utter dejection and loss, then once again, as the Lord lays His comforting hands on you in solace and forgiveness – the feeling of returning and being forgiven.

Still though, there remains a scar, a burn, a mark, a scab – and it is this that Satan tries to peel away and scratch at when he brings in feelings of guilt and unworthiness. With each fall you take, Satan makes you think you are not good enough, not worthy to receive the Lord’s pardon, indeed not worth it.

When the guilt becomes too much, he lures your mind away from the issue by filling it  with the cares of the world. He distracts you with the aim to bring in spiritual lethargy.

The spiritual battle going on for the believer’s life in the heavenlies, is so fierce, that the effects of the angels struggling in conflict on behalf of every child of God, can be felt even in the believer’s body and soul. And it is when we lay down our sword just for a little bit (Oh, I’m so tired of fighting it!), it is then that the enemy brings in his second weapon – a sense of defeat.

He makes you so tired that you are ready to think about anything and everything but your spiritual life. And once this process begins, the enemy does not retreat silently into the background in celebration. No! He is continuously prowling the recesses of your mind filling you with guilt. “Oh you’re slipping, you’ve lost again.”, “You did not spend time with the Lord today! How can you after what you’ve done!”, “Oh you did not read your Bible today”, “You haven’t prayed.” And finally you hear yourself say, as you drift further away from the Lord’s presence: “I have gone far from the Lord, I have displeased the Lord. What has my life become!”

If we follow this downward spiral of depression, we end up, as many believers have, who first sin, fight against Satan, sin again, fall again, until finally they get to a point where they’re just too tired, and throw in their arms –“Oh I can’t do it anymore.” Then they allow Satan’s voice to lure them into a slumber of worldly distraction, before The Guilt Trip begins. They finally get to a point where their feelings of unworthiness and guilt convince them that the Lord would be better off without them anyway, that they weren’t cut out for holy living, or that they were a spiritual waste. And the end point of this process is coming to the conclusion that it is the Lord who has drawn away from us, because of our constant sinning.

But Oh, Child of God, Hear what the Bible has to say, What the Lord has to say:

    " Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
    " Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you...."

(James 4: 7, 8 )


     "...and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."

(John 6: 37)

If you allow these thoughts to depress you and make you feel sinful and guilty, then you allow Satan to take you away from the move of God.

It is not wrong for you to correct and rebuke your inner man, to demonstrate your remorse with tears, to want to renew your mind by spending time in prayer and fasting. These are all good disciplines. It is good to give place to godly sorrow which will turn you to repentance and bring you back to God from your present state of worldliness.

    " For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation..."

(II Corithians 7: 10)

But you can do nothing by yourself. You need God for this.

    "... for without me ye can do nothing."

(John 15: 5)

Many believers make the mistake of stopping their ears, not from rebuke but from the cries of acceptance that the Lord offers them. If God wants to preach to your heart, for your present condition, and you turn away because you feel you are unworthy – “Oh my ears are unworthy to hear this message because they have heard the world for so long”, Then one day you will become deaf to the message and the cries of the Lord.

Many Christians allow The Guilt Trip to grip them so viciously, that they even stop going to church on Sundays, because they feel unworthy, unlovable, undeserving. Instead of lifting up their eyes and looking at the open arms of their Saviour, ready to soothe their yearning hearts, and heal their running sores, they give in to the voice of The Evil One: “All these days you have been so distant from the Lord, you have not been praying, you have not been meditating, what is the use of hearing the message if it does not affect you? First go and cleanse yourself and then go for fellowship…otherwise what’s the use?!!”

This is Satan’s third weapon, his third trick. When Satan wants you out of God’s presence he says, “Stop hearing the Word. It will do you no good. You have to first cleanse yourself.”

But the Lord says,

    “ Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” (John 15: 3)

When a child runs out into the playground, and unheeding of his mother’s call, speeds up till he falls into the mud, hurts himself, and soils his hands, his feet, his clothes, what does the mother do? Doesn’t she run toward the child in alarm and concern – her little one has fallen, he must have hurt himself, the poor thing! She lifts the crying child to her bosom, smooths his brow, plants a kiss on his cheek, speaks to him soothingly, searches for bruises on his body, and then tries her best to ease his pain. Will a mother discard her child for his disobedience? Even if he is a wild, naughty brat of a child. No! For he is her child.

This is the way it is with every believing child of God. If you sin, maybe more often than you want to, God is not keeping count of the times you fall. He is only waiting to help you up and get you back in place. He is not waiting to condemn you with looks of fierceness, if you just lift up your eyes to His face, you will see – His eyes are full of love and hope, for He sees in you the diamond that you will one day become.

Even when you are weak, He sees in you – a potential warrior.

This does not mean that we go on sinning. For the Bible says:

     " Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?
     " But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates."

(II Corinthians 13: 6,7)

    "...not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God."

(I Peter 2: 16)

    " My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

   " And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world."

(I John 2: 1, 2)

Once we are born again, we do not willfully sin. All true believers may fall prey to temptation in some areas of their life. Their sins may be serious ones with long lasting repurcussions, that may take longer to heal, or they may be slips here and there that cause nagging hindrances in their spiritual life. 

Your sins may stop a blessing, may hinder a reward, may even turn the course of your life. But, once you come to the Lord in true humility and repentance, (and the Lord only recognizes true repentance), it is then that you receive His forgiveness.

Let us take heed to this text from Hebrews Chapter 10:

    " By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
    " And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:
    " But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;
    " From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.
    " For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
    " Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before,
    " This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
    " And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
    " Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
    " Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
    " By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
    " And having an high priest over the house of God;
    " Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

(Hebrews 10: -10 - 22)

Many believers who travel The Guilt Trip and are absorbed by it, atend to and forget that the Lord Jesus Christ bore their punishment once and for all on the cross. It is not our worthiness that the Lord sees – but the worth of the blood that has been applied to our hearts, and how much we do value it.

Be careful Child of God. This may seem like a small thing in your life right now – this causal ‘slip and fall’. And you may have not understood it as it was happening. And you may think, “ What’s all the fuss about?” But, "your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:" (I Peter 5: 5)

Just as you would take a pill for the flu, or a visit a doctor if you are physically ill, if you are spiritually sick shouldn’t you still come into the presence of the Lord? So that you may not lose your pay of heavenly riches? So that you may not lose the favour of the Lord?

Dearly Beloved, take care that the devil does not deceive you with The Guilt Trip. It is the oldest trick in the book.