Found Guilty

"Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight! Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt, whose lives are lived in complete honesty! When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long. Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.” And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone." - Psalm 32:1-5

Why do we wait to run to Him? 

All of the sin we have committed and will ever commit has already been forgiven. "For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified." - Hebrews 10:14

Guilt proves our conscience, but it's only good as long as it makes us want to turn from our selfishness and accept grace, leaving the guilt at the cross. Guilt should only make us realize our sin, it shouldn't weigh us down keeping us from living fully. Guilt that we don't let go of can deplete us of all joy. It clouds our hearts. I think it distorts our view of God. 

Like David said in the Psalm above "Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.” And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone." Really, what good can wallowing in our guilt do for us? Where can that take us? We can't earn His acceptance, we can't gain His grace, nothing we can do on our own can redeem us from our sin. All we can do is show our dependence by admitting our weakness and accept the free gift of grace as we boldly approach the throne of God, because His arms are wide open and His grace is greater than our sin. "..but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more." - Romans 5:20

The only sin that can be overcome is sin that we believe is forgiven. So until we get to that point, we won't be able to let go of our guilt.

"So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most." - Hebrews 4:14-16

This is the only way to be free. And this is how we live in freedom. We recognize what He did on the cross and we must then move from His death to His resurrection.
Jesus didn't stay dead, and neither should we stay in our shame.
To fully live is to live in freedom.

"This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us." - 1st John 3:19-24