I wonder how many times we do things because of guilt? I expect it is a lot more times then we think.

How many times have we been made to give because we were made to feel guilty if we did not give?

Do we use guilt to cause others to do things in a way that we want? We do this often and are not even aware that we do it.

How about our children do they know how to use guilt to a make their parents do things they would not do otherwise. They do!

Who uses this feeling of guilt to manipulate?

You and I, our children, the news media, the government, the church, business, sales people, and many more I am sure. We are confronted with this every day. How do we handle it?

In order to respond properly to anything we must know what we are responding to. In this case it is guilt. It is an emotion within me that can be used by others to control my actions if I allow it.

As Christian people we should not be controlled by guilt we should be led by the Spirit in all things. The just man shall live by faith. To me that means I don't have to allow my guilt feeling to lead me. I can look to my faith and I need do only what my faith is telling me to do.

A number of times in the past people have come to us looking for direction when several things were open to them. I just asked them a question. What do you have the most faith to do? They would look at me for a moment and say, "I know what I am to do".

The bible tells us to weigh and test every thing, but we don't! We need to test our thoughts and our emotions or feelings, but we don't! As a result we allow others to play with our feelings and control our actions, instead of being in control ourselves.

We give when we should not be giving. We get involved when we should not get involved. We spoil our children instead of teaching them proper values. Guilt does all of this and more. We get caught up in the wisdom of the world instead of the wisdom of God and we suffer loss in many ways.

When we respond from guilt there is not any good fruit. Faith bears good fruit every time.

As the Church the body of Christ we, each and every one of us, should recognize guilt for what it is and how destructive it is. We should also see the measure of faith we each have and learn to live by it. What a change it would make in the Church, in our homes, in our relationships and with our children.

I pray Father that you would wake us all up and we would all see guilt for what it is, and see faith and what it can do for us. Amen! Amen!