How can we avoid the
guilt that sometimes comes with the gospel? In other words, at times even when
I am reading my scriptures and praying regularly I feel like I am not doing my
part. I never feel like the Lord is happy with me.
We know that guilt to the spirit is
like pain to the body; it is an essential indication of the need to repent and
better ourselves. It is not rare however for a saint to self-inflict themselves
with guilt for one reason or another and this can be dangerous because it is
depressing to put forth a valiant effort and still feel like you are coming up
short, so how can this be avoided? How can we eliminate guilt that is the cause
of our incorrect perception and not actually caused by sin? First we need to
make sure we know that perfection is not a prerequisite to grace. In Doctrine
and Covenants 39:4 Christ says, “…Even so will I give unto as many as will
receive me power to become my sons.” This is so important that we get the order
of events right. First we receive Christ and then we have power to become his
sons, or become like He is. Often times we flip this concept and think that we
need to become like He is by our own strength and then we can enter into his
grace. That is a false and dangerous idea because we will never be good enough
for Christ, but he is willing to accept us as we are, if we just allow him to.
Another important thing that will
help us remove some of our guilt is to be more liberal in our speech of Christ’s
grace. We often say that thoughts lead to words, but I think it’s almost more
powerful in reverse, words lead to thoughts. If we vocalize the gratitude we
have for Christ and his atonement, we will start to think more on the grace he
has given us and less on the criticism we give ourselves. God knows how
important this is and so he has given us a commandment in Doctrine and
Covenants 25:12-13 “For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea a song
of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing
upon their heads. Wherefore, lift up thy heart and rejoice…” The Lord has not
only told us to praise Him, he has given us the very words. We should never
underestimate the power of a hymn. Too often we see hymns as fluff. If we need
to save time in a meeting we cut out the hymn, but I feel that hymns are
essential in assuring that our focus is on Christ’s grace and mercy.
One more thing that we can do to
remove some of the guilt we feel is found in Doctrine and Covenants 27:2 “…It
mattereth not what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink when ye partake of the
sacrament, if it so be that ye do it with an eye single to my glory-
remembering unto the Father my body which was laid down for you and my blood
which was shed for the remission of your sins.” If we partake of the Sacrament
with an eye single to the glory of God then we will have a stark remembrance of
the sacrifice that Christ made for us. If we have the perspective that Christ
wants us to have we will realize that our lives are worth the life of a God. In
his book The Screwtape Letters, C.S.
Lewis wrote (from the perspective of a demon) “It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their
minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out.” Satan isn’t
necessarily telling us all the time that we’re worthless, he’s just fighting to
make sure we don’t remember how much we’re really worth. Taking the sacrament
with the right perspective will overcome that tactic of the enemy.
As 2 Nephi 2:25 teaches, we were made to have joy. Just
because perfect obedience amplifies that joy, it should not be a prerequisite
to joy in general. We just have to learn how to see us from God’s perspective.
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