Is Guilt Good or bad?
Guilt can serve as a helpful motivator to cause us to change our bad behavior. It can also be a crippling effect on our life if that guilt is not appropriate.
How effective is conscience and how to make it effective?
Our conscience is only one way God talks to us through. But it is not the voice of God. It can be affected by all sorts of other factors such as our upbringing, society, education, etc.
Our conscience needs to be checked by the word of God if it were to be effective in steering our life.
Our conscience can get influenced by the wrong things that the media is feeding us with.
How to get rid of guilt?
Receive the forgiveness of Jesus
There is only one way to get rid of guilt – though cleansing and the forgiveness of Jesus through repentance.
(Jer 31:34 NIV) “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
If the person feels guilty because of sin and has no intention to repent, then the guilt will not be removed because it is actually the work of the Holy Spirit in convicting us of sin.
(John 16:8 NIV) When he (the Holy Spirit) comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment:
Forgiving ourselves
Guilt may be a punishment that someone imposes on himself because he cannot forgive himself for doing something disgusting and shameful. The way to get rid of guilt in this case is for the person to forgive himself.
Getting rid of perfectionist attitude
Some people still feel guilty even though they have done their best and have not done anything wrong. This kind of guilt is not appropriate.
Knowing what God requires of us
Another area of false guilt is when we feel guilty doing something that is actually permitted by God. One example is the case of the Corinthian church feeling guilty over eating meat offered to idols when it fact that was not disallowed by God. One way the devil works is to create many man-made laws to make obeying God so cumbersome that we will eventually give up altogether.
Rejecting the devil’s condemnation
Christians need to distinguish whether it is the convicting work of the Holy Spirit or the condemning finger of the devil. One clue is that the conviction of the Holy Spirit is always specific, intending for us to change our ways whereas the devil makes generalized and sweeping remarks at us to make us feel bad but yet don’t know how to change.