Songs for the Guilty, reposted in Spotify.
Over the past week, I’ve spent time talking to some ladies about the struggles they are facing. Not trials, really, just the daily fight against unbelief. In their lives unbelief expresses itself in many different ways; fear, anger, need to control, despair etc. I can understand these struggles because there are many times when I also wonder, “can I really trust the promises of God? Will God really take care of this situation, or should I try to control it? Will my children respond to calmly spoken truth, or should I put fear in their hearts with an explosion of anger against them?” The list could go on. In your life, there are little battles (and perhaps some big ones) fought everyday. And as long as you are alive and kicking, you’ll be losing many of those battles.
Which, I admit, is not the most encouraging message I can present to you this morning. “Guess what?! You’re going to fail today! Whoo-hoo!” But honestly, if you can’t handle this truth you will not appreciate the gloriousness of the other truths contained in these songs. God delights to remind us that our failure are not the standard by which he judges us. Over and over, the bible reminds us to look to the cross. It is only there that we will be able to bear up under the burden of our ever-present sin nature. Christ paid for our sin, all of it. We place our trust in his payment because we recognize that our payment would forever be insufficient. It would always be judged and found lacking.
Guilt after failure is powerful. It gnaws at our souls and can breed a whole host of issues if not dealt with properly. There is a long answer regarding guilt (which I am going to write about at some point) and there is a short answer, which I’ll state and then back up with the songs in this playlist. The final answer to a christian’s struggle with guilt is the cross. Whatever the road you take in your journey to sort out personal shame, you should find Christ’s death at the end of it. You will have to have a renewed understanding of what Christ did for you when he died.
I used two songs about guilt to bookend this playlist. If you grew up in a fundamental church the first song will probably transport you back to the days when you’d sing “Just As I Am” over and over (and over and over and over) at the end of every Sunday service. So I’m giving you fair warning and challenging you to really listen to the words that you might sung with mindless repetition. The words are powerful. And that first song sets you up to hear all the songs in the middle, all about the wonderful work of Christ on the cross. The last song, a new favorite of Paul’s, is a joyful statement of trust in God’s final work – a trust that is powerful enough to quiet the doubt, fear and guilt that press against your soul.
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