We must learn the difference between condemnation and true conviction from God that we have done something wrong. Condemnation presses us down and manifests as a heavy burden that requires us to pay for our errors. Conviction is the work of the Holy Spirit, who is showing us that we have sinned and inviting us to confess our sins, to receive forgiveness and God’s help to improve our behavior in the future. Condemnation makes the problem worse; conviction is intended to lift us out of it. The result of each is entirely different from the other.
When you feel guilty, the first thing to do is to ask yourself if you are guilty. Perhaps you are. If so, confess your sin to God; turn away from that sin and don't repeat it. If you need to apologize to the person you have wronged, do it. Then...forgive yourself and let go of it! God already did, and if you refuse to, then you'll miss out on the joy of redemption that God wants us all to experience.
Sometimes you may well find that you are not guilty according to God's Word. For example, you may have a feeling guilty when you try to rest. For years you drove your incessantly to work, work, work because you felt good when you was accomplishing something and felt guilty if you was enjoying yourself. If you come to a crisis point and cry out to God about why you couldn't enjoy resting, and He showed you that the guilty feelings were leftovers from your past. My father seemed to approve of me more when you was working and he did not value enjoyment of any kind, so you learned early in life that work was applauded but rest had little or no value.
That thinking is totally wrong according to God’s Word. Even He rested from His work of creation and has invited us to enter His rest.
What makes you feel guilty? What does God’s Word say about the situation? You may discover that yours is a false guilt or it may be real, but either way, the Word of God holds the answer to your dilemma. If it is a false sense of guilt, then declare it to be so and be determined not to let your feelings rule you. If your guilt is based on a real sin, then follow the scriptural pattern for getting rid of it. Repent, tell all, ask for forgivenss, and receive forgiveness by faith. Now believe and confess that your sin, and the guilt, has been taken care of by Jesus. And move on!
The Holy Spirit is given to us for many reasons, and one of the really important ones is to convict us of sin. We should love and appreciate all conviction because without it we could easily live lives of self-deception. A spiritually mature person can receive conviction and not let it condemn them. Correction from God is never rejection. It is a sign of His love that He is unwilling to leave us as we are, but He works daily to change us into His image and help us develop His character.
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