Hennie Symington

You were at one time spiritually dead because of your sins and because you were Gentiles without the Law. But God has now brought you to life with Christ. God forgave all your sin. Colossians 2:13

We are all suffering from a terminal disease – even the healthiest among us. It is the sickness of sin. Each of us carries this painful knowledge with us day by day and are plagued a sense of guilt that weighs heavily on us and which we simply can’t shake off. Some of us blame ourselves for something we did a long time ago and still regret. Others are burdened by a load of sin they simply cannot give up. Sometimes we blame ourselves for something which wasn’t even our fault like someone’s death or your parents’ divorce or a friendship that fell by the wayside.

The sad thing about feelings of guilt is that they affect our self-image and taint all your relationships. Sometimes that feeling of guilt is completely out of proportion to the deed that we committed yet we show now mercy. We appoint ourselves as prosecutor, judge and executioner. Ask yourself, what kind of prosecutor you will be when you’re prosecuting yourself? What kind of a judge will turn his ear to you for mercy if you have not clemency for yourself? How will you ever escape the executioner if it is you yourself?

Show some mercy by placing yourself in the hand of God. Gather up your sin and guilt and place it on Jesus’ shoulders – he who became human and died an agonising death and conquered the death precisely to take the load off your shoulder.

Don’t look back – look up ahead where the best is still to come – a life without the burden of the past.

Prayer: I thank you Lord that I can lay down my burden at the foot of the cross. Thank you for freeing me from the burden of my past by giving your life in return. Amen