Guilt can be good for you!

Does “good guilt” seem like an oxymoron? It is not. Good guilt is the guilt we feel when we truly are guilty! We feel good guilt when we have broken God’s laws, and our conscience is pricked. Good guilt is a sign that the Holy Spirit is at work in our hearts, convicting us of sin. The trouble is, many of us stop with feeling guilt, and do not move forward to repentance and forgiveness.

Peter may not have made a lot of friends when he preached his second sermon recorded in the book of Acts, but the Holy Spirit used his words to stir up good guilt. He told those who had witnessed the healing of a lame man, “The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant, Jesus, the one whom you delivered up, and disowned in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release Him. But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, but put to death the Prince of life...” Pretty direct, is it not? When Peter finished preaching, he called for his audience to repent, and the Bible records that “many of those who had heard the message believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.” (Acts 4: 4) Are you experiencing any good guilt today? What are you going to do about it?