How do you get rid of guilt when feelings of condemnation, blame, or “the bad guy” hang over your soul? Sometimes I’ve woken up in the morning with the “I’m the scum of the earth” cloud raining on my day. I don’t like it, and I know I’m not alone in this experience.

Maybe you haven’t identified these feeling as guilt or judgment, yet you know you feel uncomfortable. It’s an ugly feeling.

Years ago I read a short story from Religious Digest that painted a picture in my mind of standing free of guilt and judgment. It remains a mental picture of where to flee when ugly feelings try to settle over my day.

The safety zone

An old preacher who was preaching on a village green in England had lived on the American prairies. He had a fascination for my boyish ears as he told of a prairie fire.

He described the way the Indians saved their wigwams from the blaze by settling fire to the dry grass immediately adjoining the settlement.

“The fire cannot come,” he cried, “where the fire has already been.”

That is why I call you to the Cross of Christ. Judgment has already fallen there and can never come again.

He who takes his stand at the Cross is safe evermore. He can never come into condemnation . . . he is in God’s safety zone.

Jesus long ago pulled all my guilt, all my “wrongness,” and all of my mess-ups off of me and declared them to be his when he went to the Cross. He was judged guilty in my place and paid the death penalty for me with his life.

For God caused Christ, who himself knew nothing of sin, actually to be sin for our sakes so that in Christ we might be made good with the goodness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21 PHILLIPS).

No condemnation now hangs over the head of those who are “in” Jesus Christ. For the new spiritual principle of life “in” Christ lifts me out of the old vicious circle of sin and death (Romans 8:1-2 PHILLIPS).

How to get rid of guilt

The fire cannot come where the fire has already been! Therefore, I know how to get rid of guilt.

When feelings of condemnation and “I’m the scum of the earth” invade my life, I imagine myself running to the Cross and standing on the scorched earth beneath it’s charred beams. I then declare to my soul, and all the powers of hell, that I am innocent because I am standing where the fire of God’s judgment has already been and cannot come again.

A mental picture is a great tool to help you get rid of guilt. I believe that God gave you imagination to help you remember that your freedom is real. You are free. You don’t have to live under guilt. Easter gave you your safety zone.

Have a wonderful Easter, Susan

Did you find this helpful? I’d love to get your feedback. Just drop your thoughts into the comment section below.

“Jesus likes it when we share.” -Adelaide, age 3: Pass this along to everybody and their brother. OK, maybe not everybody’s brother, but you know . . . all of your friends would be nice.

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