A great tragedy is that guilt has become associated with God. Not only is this not one of His choice tools, it's not one of His tools at all! When the Spirit convicts our hearts, the message is not a harsh, "Get this right and then we'll talk," but a gentle, "Hey, see that thing over there? Would you please give it to Me? It's getting in the way of us being closer."
He will take it away or transform it in His power, working within us, not waiting for us to shape up or ship out. We don't try harder - we just let Him get to work.
When the Spirit convicts us, the choice of how to respond is always ours. As are the consequences.
