Guilt is a Liar

As Christians we know that God is always speaking to us, but we don't always know how to listen. I think the biggest problem we have as believers is that we don't understand God's character and we believe that when we need correction from God we are going to hear it in the form of condemnation and guilt. We know that we aren't supposed to feel guilty, but what we don't always realize is that we are supposed to feel convicted. Conviction and guilt couldn't be more opposite, but many times they are confused for each other. So what is the difference?


Guilt drags you down, tells you that you aren't good enough, you don't measure up.

Conviction encourages you to do better, shows you a better way, and uplifts you.

I am a teacher so during the summer I don't work. No work means that my regular stream of income is non existent. While my husband and I do prepare for summer and save up to help ease the burden, there is still a need to trust God with our finances.

I have a couple little side gigs I do from home to bring in extra income, and one of those things is market research. Every so often I have a company call me and survey me to see if I fit their credentials for studies they are doing. Sometimes it's personal care products, other times its cleaning stuff, even food or drinks. Anyway, the extra income is nice and being an opinionated person, I don't mind getting paid to tell them what I think of their products.

Today they called me and asked a series of questions. I knew what they were getting at, and I wanted to do the study so against my better judgment I told a little white lie about what kind of dish soap I use. I qualified, got my appointment and hung up the phone.

Immediately I heard God speak to me, "Why don't you trust me?"Hmmmm... How could lying about dish soap not be trusting God? I thought about this for a second and realized what it meant. Here I am trying to walk in faith for our finances and trust God to provide, yet I lie to manipulate the situation, as though God needs my help? God doesn't need me to lie for him to take care of us. If I really trusted him I wouldn't care whether or not I qualified for the study, I would be confident knowing that if I didn't get it, there would be something else on the horizon.

I prayed and asked for forgiveness and realized that I had to call back and make things right.  I don't want to give the devil any entrance into my life and after all, he is the father of lies, even little tiny white ones.

I called the lady back and told her that I gave her the wrong brand of soap, that I actually use a different kind. She sounded confused and put me on hold. She came back on the phone a couple minutes later and told me that I still qualified and thanked me for calling back. All of that and I could have just been honest from the beginning! The lie was a waste, but the lesson was not.

This may seem like a silly incident, but it gave me a huge understanding of how God redirects our steps. The devil uses guilt and says things like "you hypocrite, you say you hate lying, but then you go and lie about something so small. What kind of Christian are you?" We start to believe lies about ourselves and the devil starts getting victory in our lives. He is defeated, slam the door on him!

In contrast, God convicts us gently and tells us there is a better way, just to trust him and he will work it out. No guilt, just encouragement.

What an amazing difference! I wish I would have just told the truth the first time, so that I didn't need to have the humbling experience of calling back, but I am so thankful I heard God's voice gently reminding me to trust him, that it is for my own good.

Do you feel guilty when you do something you know you shouldn't? Well you need to stop. God sent his son Jesus to die for your sins and we need to be more God conscience and less sin conscience. If we are in Christ then the bible says we are a new creation. Our past, present and future sin is covered under Jesus' blood and we should feel nothing but freedom.

After that experience today I felt so good. Even though I messed up, I was so thankful God showed me how I can trust him more. I don't want any unbelief entering in to ruin all the blessings God has planned for me!

Conviction provides a solution showing us how we can trust God more, and grow closer to him! Give me more of that!

Do you have any stories about times God convicted you and it strengthened your relationship with him? I would love to hear about it!

XXOO