Jo Scheidt writes to empower women to experience a deeper, more intimate level of joy and awareness in their relationship with God, ultimately discovering their purpose and true identity. Jo’s website is found at https://realwithgod.com/
D I TC H T H E G U I LT —
CHRISTIAN LADIES! By Jo Scheidt
If you do, you and I need to talk!
Take that out of your bag—you’re not meant to carry it! Guilt can rob you of the joy and relationship with God you are meant to carry in your day-to-day living. We choose to carry guilt when we fall short of our goals or when we know we’ve sinned. Sometimes we take something good, like prayer, and give opportunity for guilt to plague us when we don’t meet expectations we think are on us. • Do you have prayer goals? • Do you find it hard to fit prayer into your day? • How should your prayer life look? • Is there a right way and a wrong way to pray? • Do you feel guilty if you go all day without praying? Are those the right questions? Those are the kinds of questions that can lead to overwhelm and guilt when we don’t put them in their proper place. What if you could break free from all of those expectations on you as a Christian woman? Let’s look at it this way: Do you ask yourself those questions when it comes to talking with your friends? Probably not every day, right? You might occasionally feel guilty for not getting back to someone, but, generally, you don’t carry the weight of all those questions regarding talking with friends. Right? 30 | M AG A Z I N E N A M E PAGE 3 29
The questions above that cause anxiety and guilt do not come from God. The expectations we put on ourselves (and others) of what a Christian woman is supposed to be or act like are harmful. We should be cautious about the unnecessary weight we place upon our shoulders. We should not carry the burdens that Jesus placed on himself so we wouldn’t have to! God doesn’t want you living under that kind of heaviness and bondage. Spend time in confession, and then accept His kind forgiveness and move forward. Leave it with Him, and don’t pick it back up again to carry with you. It’s not yours! In Matthew 11:29-30, Jesus said, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (NIV) What God puts on you is NOT heavy. It’s light. And it’s both kinds of light, meaning not heavy and also not dark! We need to believe the Scriptures when it says: “as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:12 ESV) What does any of that have to do with prayer? Everything! Does your best friend understand when you don’t call one day? She probably knows what you’re doing instead. Right? She’s got it all figured out and isn’t sitting there insecure and wondering if you care. The only way to have that kind of relationship with God is to cultivate one as you did with your best friend!
