Christian Counseling: Sin is Forgiven, We Need to Only Seek Forgiveness
Christians as they go through life bear much guilt. While non-believers will mock Christian guilt over sin as a psychological malady, we know much better. Christian Counselors can help their spiritual children by emphasizing that while guilt leads to contrition, it can also lead to despair.
The reality is we are already forgiven. We need merely to tap into the sacrifice of the cross and bathe in the precious blood of Christ. The grace is already there and the payment for the sin has already been paid.
We sometimes waver back and forth in our temptations. We sometimes find victory, we sometimes find defeat. Christ understands the weakness of our broken human nature. He is patient and loving. He will utilize our failings to later raise us up. The moment we recognize that “I” or “Me” is uncapable of overcoming our shortcomings and we place our faith and hope in Christ, then we shall find greater strength in temptation.
Padre Pio spoke of temptation as a battle. He said to take heart in temptation for it means the evil one does not have you. He said to place all faith in Christ and remove any ego centric language for that is where the devil is. In this way, as we struggle, we should not find despair but realize we are being tested for a greater end.
If we do fall, realize Christ is not surprised, he already knew our sins before we were born. He is merely working with us until we reach our final goal which is him. He is always there even when we sin. The sin merely weakens our ability to see and feel him. The moment we sin, we should bounce back–Christ is there and waiting. He was not surprised or grudge holding in our offense– in fact he is ready to move on. Some saints have likened Christ’s love to that of an obsessed lover, who never sleeps or rests when their beloved is gone. In sin, we leave Christ, but he worries until we return and embrace him.
In this, take peace in your failings and strive harder to overcome them for as long we are engaged in Christian perfection, our failings while natural, will become less and less over time.
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Mark Moran, MA
