Are You Guilty?

Friday, December 4, 2015

Do you ever feel guilty? I hope so- if you didn't then I'd be concerned about your conscience... But seriously, think for a second about the last time you felt guilty. Why did you feel that way? Was it justified, or were you beating yourself up?

Though I am pretty much a professional self-beater-upper, I also know that the Holy Spirit convicts me of sin too. And often times, I realize that the thing I am being convicted of is my attitudes and my heart. Basically I am convicted over why I do what I do. You see, it's not a sin to not clean the living room. It isn't a sin to not do the dishes right after I eat. But it is a sin to have an attitude of laziness or to not do my very best.

For example, when I am vacuuming at work, if I miss a spot, I am not sinning. But if I half-vacuum because I don't care if I do a good job or not, then yes, I am sinning. My heart in the matter is the main issue.

God has really been convicting me lately that I have only been half-doing everything. No, He doesn't want me to become legalistic about every little thing I do, and He doesn't want me to be a perfectionist- both of which I tend to get caught up in- but He does want me to be intentional about doing a good job.

When I don't live life well, I am also a bad witness. If I am living a life of laziness and apathy, I am inadvertently telling the world that that is ok- that Christians think that is ok. And it's not.

We walk such a fine line. We want to acknowledge that it's ok to relax, to have "me time" and to let go of perfectionism, and yet, we still need to live a life that is glorifying to God. And so we do one of two things: 1.) we develop a fear of failure, a self-condemning perfectionism that eats at us if we mess up one little piece of life, or, 2.) we give up on doing a good job, stop caring, and shrug off responsibility because "God doesn't want us to get carried away".



I don't know about you, but I find extremes (and the conviction that follows them) to be exhausting. I want to start learning to actually give things to God in a way that He teaches me the balance, instead of me trying to teeter on that fence by myself.

So think for a minute: what is God convicting you of? No, not "what are you beating yourself up about?". Not "what can you not accept forgiveness for?". But instead, what is God legitimately convicting you of? Have you thought about it? Good.

Now, join me in asking for His help. Join me in doing a much better job at consistently reading His word. Join me in refusing to try to find a balance on your own- because you never will.


12 comments

  1. This is such a nice post for this time of the year. We tend to start feeling guilty about every little thing. Did we spend enough on presents? Did we not offend someone by not being able to spend enough time together? So many thoughts, but at the end of the day, did we do our best and do it genuinely? I think that's what's important. <3 Happy Holidays!

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  2. I'm a student who really needed to read this before finals....I struggle with perfectionism and never giving myself time to catch up on rest, but also struggle with finding the motivation to study. Thank you so much!!

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    1. I'm so glad this was helpful! That is what I write for :)

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  3. Having a soft heart towards the prickings of the Holy Spirit is so important!

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  4. Great post... something I can relate to so much! Thanks for sharing and for a great reminder on our heart attitudes!

    Katie

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  5. I love what you said about giving ourselves to God so that he can teach us balance than trying to rely on our perfectionism ourselves. This is so good!! Thank you for sharing.

    Stopping by from the Peony Project :)

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    1. Thank you, Nina! It's tough, but something we must do.

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  6. This was a great post, I struggled with perfectionism. If I didn't do something right or by the book I would condem myself. It is to the point where I always think I'm doing something wrong and that is not how God wants me to be in this journey. I am glad you said give it to him and ask him to teach us!!!! I have being doing that a lot and it is working! Thank you for posting this!!!!

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    1. Yes! I do the same. I basically invent things to be sorry for and ask God's forgiveness for. It's so important that we stop doing that.

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