Episode #23: Releasing yourself from guilt when you can’t solve the world’s problems

Can we be raw and real for a second? Sometimes caring for our people, managing our home, and working at the job that pays us money, feels like more than enough.

Then we add on a never-ending pandemic, racial unrest, social injustice, Saharan dust clouds, murder hornets, and who-knows-what-else, and we want to scream, “Put a fork in me. I’m done!”

We want to handle the hourly changes the pandemic causes with grace. We want to do our part to bring peace and reconciliation where there has been hurt and heartache for centuries. We want to love our neighbors and pray for our friends.

We want to do lots of amazing, impactful, loving things, but sometimes daily life is enough. Then the guilt sets in telling us we should be doing more.

So we’re going to release ourselves from guilt in 20 short minutes. We’ll talk about:

Where you’re struggling
Why you feel guilt
Your main job in all this
God’s main job in all this
And the difference between guilt and conviction

You’re a try-hard girl so you genuinely want to help in every possible way.

We feel this pressure to serve all the time. That if we don’t we’re selfish or lazy. That if we really loved Jesus and people we would serve until we keeled over. That Jesus has a scorecard that tabulates how much we’re doing for Him and others, and somehow we’re falling short because our brain feels full, our mind seems fuzzy, and our bodies are tired.

So what are we try-hard girls to do?

Should we power through? Should we curl in a ball and do nothing? What is our role in all this?

Let’s move away from the guilt-perspective that tells you you’re not doing enough and move into the truth of who you are:

You are God’s girl. Friend, He sees you in all this. He knows your heart and sees your struggle. You are His daughter, who is precious and beloved in His sight.
You are a woman whose main job is to be someone who is with Jesus. Spend time with Him. Pray. Read His words as a reminder of how much you are loved and cared for.
You are a woman who locks eyes with Jesus. Just like Peter did when he walked on water. You look your friend Jesus in the face and you do not turn to the left or to the right.
You are a woman who allows Jesus to tend to her heart. Friend, your God has a Father’s heart. When He sees you hurting, He doesn’t expect or intend for you to tearfully limp along still carrying the weight of doing All The Things.

What is God’s role?

God’s job is to hold all things together. God has ultimate authority. Ultimate love. Ultimate power. Ultimate control. And the ultimate plan. Yes, you’re holding a lot of things together, but He’s the one holding you together.
God provides for today. And God provides for you for today in the uncertainty. The only time to experience God and to live in His grace is this very moment. God gives you what you need today. God sustains you today. God fills in the gaps today.
God’s role is to be the God of more than enough. So what do you need? You need leadership. So He became the Good Shepherd. You need hope. So He became the anchor of your soul. You need a next right step. So He became the lamp that lights your path.

One role God never fills is making you feel guilty.

We are still left with the question, “What do I do? I should do something to help. I should make an effort.” May I share two hard-earned, learned-these-through-experience lessons about guilt?

“Should” is the vocabulary of our enemy.

Anytime you use the word “should,” run from the action you’re “should-ing” yourself to do. Instead, ask God what He has for you in the moment. Often, it’s something that was planted in you long ago and needs to come out of you now.

Pursue Jesus.

Seek His kingdom. He will make it clear who He wants you to love and how He’d like you to do it.

Feel no shame that your current season doesn’t allow for you to do All The Things because no season ever does.

And at the same time, do your God-assignment right where you are. God knows your season and He is actively at work in it. And He also prepared good works in advance for you to do in each season.

If you take nothing else away from this episode remember this:

God will never make you feel guilty for not changing the world because that was never your job to begin with. Instead, your good is to do the good works He planned for you before the beginning of time. Some of the work may feel small and inconsequential. Some may involve a stage and an audience.

All the work given to you by God and done in love counts.

Key Quotes

God knows what is on your plate and has a plan to help you through it.
Pursue Jesus.
Feel no shame that your current season doesn’t allow for you to do All The Things because no season ever does.
God prepared good works in advance for you to do in each season of life.
God will never make you feel guilty for not changing the world because that was never your job to begin with.
All the work given to you by God and done in love counts.