[thinxtoomuch]

Ezekiel 18:1-4

1The word of the Lord came to me: 2"What do you people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel: "'The fathers eat sour grapes, and all the children's teeth are set on edge'" 3As surely as I live, declares the Soverign Lord, you will no longer quote this proverb in Israel. 4For every living sould belongs to me, the father as well as the son--both alike belong to me. The soul who sins is the one who will die."

When Ezekiel wrote this he was speaking out against people who were making a doctrine of inherited guilt. Today I had a converstion with a friend of mine who was frustrated because she "knows she should feel guilty about her past," even though she'd repented.

Why do we feel the need to be guilty for the things we've done even after we've repented and asked for forgiveness? We so hard pressed to believe that when God forgives us, He forgets, He moves on. Maybe it's an ingrained part of our society, maybe it's just a 'thing' that people learn to live with or they get over.

God doesn't want us to dwell on the sins of the generations before us, nor does he want us to dwell on the sins of our pasts. The keep us so far apart from where we are supposed be with God. How can we see what He is doing in our lives today if we are stuck, feeling guilty about what we did yesterday or even a million yesterdays ago?

Let go of the past; let God be God and let Him forgive you!