Avoiding Guilt

Trying to find God's will for our lives can be an enormous guilt trip. Now there is a place for guilt in the Christian life. In 2 Corinthians 7:10 it speaks of a sorrow for sin which is of God and which leads to repentance. This is the sorrow that comes from the fact that we have sinned against God and need to recognize this and repent (Proverbs 28:13; 1 John 1:9; Psalms 51:1-4). But God then wants us to put our sins behind us and go on (Philippians 3:13,14; 1 Corinthians 4:3-5; Romans 8:33,34). This is not to say that we should not try to avoid the same sin in the future, but we should not brood over it. But this is regarding clear-cut sin. What is involved in the question of finding God's will is more often than not a matter of judgment. Unless there is clear sin involved (in which case we should repent and put it behind us), we need to trust that God is in control of our life (Romans 8:28; Ephesians 2:10; 1:11) and go on from there. The real sins are written in clear language that is open for all to see. There is no idea in Scripture of feeling guilty because we have not found the right secret formula to determine what we need to do. God does not deal in secret formulas, but in open obedience. We should not load on people unnecessary burdens that are not found in Scripture.