"Set Free”

"When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer" (Psalm 32:3-4 NKJV).

Can you identify with the words of the Psalmist David? If you have ever suffered with the burden of guilt, then you understand the Psalmist’s words. If anyone ever fully understood the pain that guilt brings to a person’s life, David did. Read 2 Samuel 11 to find some of David’s most well-known blunders. The guilt of his sin weighed heavily upon his mind. It made him restless. It consumed his energy. The burden of guilt does the same for you and me.

What do we do with guilt?

Listen to the Psalmist: "I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,’ And You forgave the iniquity of my sin” (Psalm 32:5).

Notice that the Psalmist didn’t say that he tried to cover it up (though David had tried it before, 2 Samuel 11). He didn’t try to ignore it, hoping it would go away. He didn’t try to run from it, nor did he try to make excuses for his wrongful actions. Rather, he acknowledged the fact that he had committed sin and confessed those sins to the Lord.  The Lord forgave him.

Jesus died on the cross so that we, too, might be forgiven of our sins. He "bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed" (1 Peter 2:24). In order to have our sins forgiven and the burden of guilt lifted from our lives, we must believe in Him (Acts 16:31), repent of our sins (Acts 17:30), and be baptized so that our sins can be washed away (Acts 2:38; 22:16). Then, as we continue to walk in the light as He is in the light, the blood of Jesus continues to cleanse us from all sin (1 John 1:7).

Once we have responded to Christ on His terms, we may know the blessedness of forgiveness of which the Psalmist wrote in Psalm 32:1-2: "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit" (Psalm 32:1-2).

Will you allow the Lord to set you free from the burden of guilt by responding to Him on His terms?

God bless you!

David A. Sargent, Minister 

Church of Christ at Creekwood 
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama  36695

To Subscribe to "Living Water" send a blank e-mail to:

                      HTML version:  subscribe-livingwater@lyris.dundee.net
                   TEXT version:  subscribe-livingwater-text@lyris.dundee.net

Follow this link to locate the church of Christ nearest you: www.churchsearch.org

Archived issues of "Living Water" can be accessed from our website at: www.creekwoodcc.org