John 3:16-17: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

John 8:1-11: “...but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

So much of our relationship with God is dependent on our ability to understand forgiveness. When the Apostles asked Jesus to teach them to pray Jesus immediately gave them a warning about allowing unforgiveness to reside in the heart.
An unforgiving heart will always get in the way of the possibility of a close relationship with the Father due to our inability to understand His forgiveness. People allow themselves to be controlled by it long after the feeling should have been resolved.

Guilt over something that violates the conscience is a normal emotion. However, the devil uses guilt in order to trap, to imprison men and women in a prison of fear and lack of self-confidence, away from God’s love. Trust is almost impossible as one continuously awaits the wrath of God upon his or her life through natural events or accidents. Guilt even starts to distort the view of self and instead of saying “my behavior is wrong” they reach the conclusion - I am bad – which further distorts the identity of a Christian.

Jesus did not come to accuse or condemn. He came to SAVE! and to forgive just as He did the woman caught in adultery in the passage on the other page. Victory over guilt begins with the understanding that Jesus took our shame to the cross and paid our penalty. Throw the yoke away and accept Jesus’ gift of redemption, not of condemnation, of love, not of destruction.

Forgive and you WILL experience forgiveness!