Do something about it! Part II

Thanks for joining me today!
Our title points to the fact that we are looking for positive, effective strategies that will help us deal with guilt.
Guilt can be incapacitating - let's do something about it!
Just like the Jewish people in the ninth chapter of Nehemiah, we are so prone to sin. We often live far less abundantly than Jesus planned, because we are constantly in a cycle of sin, guilt, forgiveness, and then slipping away from Him again.
We mentioned last time that the first step in our plan should be prayer.
The next step is to list times that God has been merciful to us.

If we look at our chapter, we see repeatedly that the people were reminded by the worship leader of all the times that God had reached down and solved problems for them. Worked miracles to deliver them. Touched people's lives to save them. Oh, believer, can't we say that about our own lives, too? Yes we can!
Let's look at some verses!
The whole theme of the prayer in chapter nine is God's mercy. After exalting God and His name in verse five, it starts where our Bible does, with God as the Creator of everything, giving life to every living creature. It continues with God choosing Abram, bringing him out of Ur and giving him the name Abraham as the sign of his covenant to give him and his descendants the land of Canaan. The next verses of the prayer detail how God delivered His people from bondage in Egypt and abundantly provided for them in the wilderness. From the dramatic parting of the waters and then releasing the waters to destroy their pursuers, to sustaining them daily with food and water, God provided for them.
But then, as the prayer states, the people became arrogant and "stiff necked" and "forgot" all that He had done for them. In contrast, to the changeable and fickle people, God was consistent in His mercy:

But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them, (v. 17b)

Even when the made the idol, the golden calf, He was merciful. The prayer continues to list the many blessings that God gave to His disobedient (and ungrateful) people in verses 20 through 25. In verses 27, 28, and 31, it notes that God's compassion was greater than their repeated and rebellious sins.
Isn't this the wonderful news of the gospel?
Isn't this what we need to hear today, too?
God is so rich in mercy - no matter how awful, how terrible, how numerous our sins -- God's grace is greater!
Remember the old hymn? "Marvelous grace of our loving Lord, grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt!"
But you don't know the extent of my sins! You don't know how terrible I've been!
That's true. But He does. And He still extends His mercy:

You, Lord, are forgiving and good,    abounding in love to all who call to you. (Psalm 86:5)

But you don't know how often I have sinned! Even after being saved!
That's true, too. But again, He does.

he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. (Titus 3:5a)

God reveals Himself as a God Who keeps on forgiving, not because we deserve to be forgiven, but in spite of our not deserving forgiveness!
We humans always ask "why?"
The prayer states that God performed signs against Pharaoh to make a name for Himself. To call attention to His power and His glory. This echoes Exodus 9:

 For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. 16 But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. (Exodus 9:15-16)

Paul touches on this in Romans 9; he asserts that God gives or withholds mercy based on His own reasons, not on anything in man or woman.

It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. (Romans 9:16)

Paul says that God endures the sin of humans with such patience so that:

if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, (Romans 9:23a)

It has nothing to do with us! Many Christians think that God's mercy and grace are contingent on our faith -- or even on our works! But scripture plainly says that our faith and our works are contingent on God's mercy and grace.....just the opposite of what some folks think. Let's check out what Paul tells us about this:

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. (Ephesians 2:1-5)

Paul emphasizes it again in verses 8-9, and then in Acts 11 and Philippians 1:29, we see that repentance and saving faith are God's gifts to us.
Whether it's in our head or on a list written down on paper, it will help us deal with guilt if we focus on all of the many times that God has been merciful to us. We are prone to sin, but He is rich in mercy!