As I did a word search through the new testament today it was amazing to me to see the consistgent use of guilt throughout. So often I have heard the statement that God convicts us, but that guilt is from the devil. I am not so sure that is the case. It seems to me that God uses guilt as a tool all through his story.

I recently heard a talk from John Piper the he gave at Passion07. He wqas talking about sexual failure and basically said that guilt is something that is to be embraced. He compared guilt for the soul as pain is to the body. If we can;t feel pain, then we never know that something is wrong. The same goes for guilt.

To that you might say, "Yes Joe, but that is called conviction, not guilt."

I think then we need to look to people who do not know the Lord and don't have the Holy Spirit in side of them. We know that there is still something in them that alarms them to things that are wrong in their life. I would venture so that that it is guilt, and that this guilt comes from God.

Now, finally, I think that there CAN be guilt that is unhealthy and from Satan. Once again, as in all things, Satan takes an emotion that God has created to use for his glory and turns it back around on us to render us useless.

So the question then is, how do we know the difference? I think the answer to this question goes back to a ststement that Dale Piscura, a apstor at my church, has made before. We need to know Jesus. We need to know him so well that when Satan would try and bring something against us, we are able to say with full authoriy, "that is not like Jesus."

Guilt can be a beautiful thing. Embrace all that God has in store to change your life!