This week's offer on The Lutheran Hour:
Unlocking the Prison of Guilt
 One of the most powerful gifts you are born with is a conscience. It can show you the difference between right and wrong and prompt you to do the right thing. However, all of us sometimes choose the wrong thing, and then guilt moves in and takes over our lives.
Some things people may feel guilty about include:
• Arriving late to work or a gathering
• Watching others suffer while you live comfortably
• Over-eating or over-spending
• Saying something hurtful or spilling a secret that was confidential
• Forgetting to thank someone for a kind act or gift
The reasons for guilt and its effects on our lives are endless. Guilt attacks our minds, causing us to see ourselves as inferior, worthless or evil. It robs us of joy because it dwells in our hearts and minds every minute of the day, weighing us down and suffocating us.
What if you are burdened with "false" guilt - guilt that is unnecessary and uncalled for? Many people who were directly affected by the attacks in New York and Washington D.C. may be dealing with false guilt.
• Members of the United States government and airlines might feel it is their fault that the terrorists broke through security and hijacked the planes.
• Security officers in the World Trade Center may be beating themselves up for reassuring employees that everything was under control and sending them back to their offices.
• A wife or husband may be tortured by angry words spoken as a spouse left for work on that nightmare day.
When tragedy strikes, we feel that someone must be responsible, someone must pay. Even when another person is at fault - like in the terrorist attacks - we often still feel responsible for the death of our loved ones. We may even feel that "if only" we could go back and do things differently...but that is impossible! Professional counseling and advice from friends can help, but talking about it won't take away the guilt. So how can you be permanently released from the prison of guilt?
Only God can sign your release from prison. God's son, Jesus, paid for your shame and guilt when he suffered and died on the cross and rose again to join his father in heaven. Your debt has been erased.
"We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on [Jesus] the iniquity (guilt) of us all" (Isaiah 53:6). Jesus died to make right everything that causes you guilt. You have gone astray, but he brings you back where you are meant to be.
Learn how one man found freedom from the guilt of an adulterous affair and mourned, and how you can have the same freedom.
To download the PDF, click here.
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