FEELING GUILTY FOR DOING THE RIGHT THING

 Feeling Guilty For Doing the Right Thing; Spending Time with God 

Has this ever happened to you? You get your Bible or your devotional book and head for a comfortable place to have a time alone with God. Almost immediately, as you open the Bible and begin to read, other thoughts come into your mind. The things you need to do start crossing your mind and you begin to think you had better get up and get moving. You feel this urgency to take care of these “things” rather than stay a little longer spending time in prayer and study. You can’t get your mind to stay on track. If you want to really get distracted get down on your knees to pray! Then we feel guilty for not staying with the Lord and guilty for not getting our “things” done. After all, the things we think need doing are not bad things. 

What’s going on? Why the guilt? Of all the activities we do, why do we struggle with concentrating when spending time with the Lord? Think about it. Of all the things we do, what would Satan most want to distract us from? Right! Time with God. The fact you want to spend time with the Lord is evidence that the Holy Spirit is drawing you into a more personal and intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.  Rejoice in that fact. What we must do is train ourselves to “be still”; learn to wait and listen. And like anything worth doing, it takes working at it and practice.

Here are some suggestions that may be of help to you in your attempt to have a satisfying and fulfilling time with the Lord.

1. Make a commitment to establish a daily time to read the Bible, worship and pray.  
2. 2.   Ask the Holy Spirit to help you remain focused on what you are doing.
3. 3.   Print or write out a small card with the following on it: Jesus is with me. The Holy Spirit indwells me.  When you find yourself being distracted, read the card to yourself or out loud as a reminder that what you are doing is pleasing to God. Then, get back to doing what you were doing before you were distracted.
4. Read short passages and then stop and ask yourself the following: What truth is being revealed? How does it apply to me?

Spending time in the presence of God is not only a blessing, it is also spiritual warfare. Satan doesn't want us to get to “know” Christ. He doesn't want Christ to be our passion. He doesn't want us to grow spiritually and become all that God desires us to be so he tries to distract us. But remember, he has already lost the battle. We have the victory in Jesus, our precious Lord and Savior. The Holy Spirit lives in us, always guiding, drawing, wooing us to the One who is closer than a brother.  Speak the name of Jesus – Satan will flee. Praise and thank God that He wants to spend time with you. 

Beloved, we were not designed to find satisfaction in this world. We were created in God’s image. Heaven, living in His presence, is our ultimate destiny, our eternal home.  God places a heavenly desire in our hearts so we will seek Him and when we do, it is a delight to Him (Ps 27:8).  Let His presence encourage us to relax and rest in Him; seeking Him with all our hearts, with every fiber of our being. His love will continue to transform us into His image as we become more and more like Him.  Praise God from Whom all blessings flow! david