Many people understand theologically that God can "forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more" (Jeremiah 31:34);"as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgression from us" (Psalms 103:12);"He will cast all our sins into the depth of the sea" (Micah 7:19); yet they feel so guilty for things in their past.

The truth of the matter is, if you are forgiven and you are genuinely converted, you feel worse about your sins than a non-believer does. Because now you have a new nature, now the Lord has done a work in your life of converting you. You are not just "justified" - declared righteousness and covered "forensically" with the righteousness of Christ, but the Spirit of God has taken up residency in your heart. Your sensitivity to sin is more heightened than it's ever been in your entire life.

Non-believers feel guilt, fear and anxiety but they don't feel the full weight of the reality of sin. When the Spirit of God takes up residency in your heart, look at the Apostle Paul. What does he say?"I am the chief of sinners." (1 Timothy 1: 15) Paul sees himself as the chiefest, highest ranking, worst of all sinners! This is an apostle, a man who physically walked with the Son of God, who is teaching biblical theology to others. What does a man of his stature mean that he is "chief sinner"?

Here is a simple principle - as you grow in Christ as a believer, you will sin less and feel worse. Why? Because you sin less, you love righteousness more; the more you love righteousness, the more you become like Christ; the more you become Christ-like, the more you hate sin!

The true heart of a godly person is always broken over sin! Always broken over sin! But then there is also peace and joy in a believer's heart, because at the same time we are broken over our sin, we're also aware of God's love, mercy grace and forgiveness. So we live in this joyous brokenness!

But if you don't feel the weight of your sin and you don't long for holiness, you are not a genuine Christian.

Many people may say: "well, God has forgiven me and I do feel broken over my sins, but there was one thing over 10 years ago that I still feel so torn about. I almost feel as if God wants me to continue morally shaming myself!" How can you move forward confidently that God has given you grace, therefore you can have peace and joy?

The answer is simple! Don't dwell on your past sins. Don't drag up something from the past that has been forgiven & forgotten; and forget the things that are behind that's already covered. Jesus already died for those sins. To dwell in your past is a failure to accept the full forgiveness and grace that has been given to you in Christ. If you're going to feel broken, feel broken about your present sins.

If you're going to cripple your Christian life, you can do it pretty easily by continually going back and dragging up past sins and beating yourself up for those. They are done with! You need to deal with brokenness over the current sins, for all those in the past are already covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. He doesn't remember them, so why should you? As forgiven sinners, we must live in the joy of forgiveness AND brokenness of the present sins, but we don't live in the past.

So what is worship? Worship is the ability to constantly thank God for what He has done, rehearsing everything that God has done for you, meditating on provenance. So when you look back on your life, you should not be remembering your sins, but rather see God's grace, upon grace, upon grace, upon grace over your life. That's where the joy comes from! Certainly, our joy will be interrupted by our present sins, but we must remember that there is hope and forgiveness when this occurs.

We should strive our very best to not sin, but when we do, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, our Savior, who stands before the Judge, our Creator, to plead our case and secure a favorable verdict for us. Jesus Christ not only died for our sins but also speaks to God on our behalf to gain our forgiveness from Him. What a great message of reassurance for God's children. All glory, praise and thanks be to God alone!