Excessive Guilt Needs the Holy Spirit

by Letters Editor · May 2, 2017

John Driver, Daveyton – In the Open Door column “I still feel guilty after confession” (March 1), the writer asks the columnist for an indication of how such a scrupulous person can be helped.

Perhaps the enquirer is looking in the wrong place for absolution, and might I suggest the crucifixion and the Holy Spirit.

All people sin and fall short of the glory of God, because we cannot obey his law.

We must not lose sight of the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal 5). Maybe we need to regain the fullness of the Spirit. Christ’s apostle Paul commands us to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and it is not merely a polite suggestion (Eph 5:18).

We lose the fullness through sin and unbelief.

I talk from experience. As for the confessional, I have been there, done that. We need to regain the fullness by daily confession to God, who resides within us, prayer and Bible reading.

The deeply Christian Corrie ten Boom, in her book Tramp for the Lord, tells us that once our sins have been forgiven, God dumps them into the deepest part of the ocean, and puts up a sign, “No Fishing”.

The first hour of my day belongs to God.