Guilt vs. Conviction

Don't remember why I was thinking this. I think I've had a few conversations lately about guilt and how I don't usually feel guilty about things, and I was thinking about why that is. I've encountered people from so many different belief systems and worldviews in the past couple of years, and they all have the same mess of feelings and philosophies about guilt. So, from the perspective of a Bible-believing, in-love-with-Jesus Christian, here are my thoughts, more or less, I had while driving down the road the other day:

What is the difference between guilt and conviction?

Guilt makes me feel regret for things I have done in the past, things I cannot change. It does not motivate me to do good; it motivates me to fix what I did bad. Or it just incapacitates me from doing good, making me feel like whatever I do, it cannot be good, because I messed up too much. Perhaps I give up on doing good, because I know that I will just fail again, and if I'm not going to be able to do good, then I may as well not try. Guilt is evil. It is destructive and abhorrent, and it is not what God wants for me. True, I am guilty. I've messed up a lot, and I still keep messing up a lot. But that is why I need Jesus. If I am going to live the life God wants, I need Him to take the weight of my guilt so that I can be free to repent, to continue moving towards the life He wants for me. Because if I carry my guilt, it will squash me.

Conviction is what God does in my heart to remove what is bad, but that will also continue to move me towards good. Conviction is about something bad I am doing NOW. It's about something I can change, something I can from this point forward choose to not do, and instead do what honors Jesus and His love, as well as the people around me. Conviction reveals an evil to my eyes that makes my heart gasp in horror, roar in grief, and cry out with the words "This should not be!" to know that I am lending my sword to the power of darkness that enslaves the world, and it is conviction that moves me to turn that sword on the darkness to cut it down.

Guilt is about the sin that is done, that which Jesus nailed to the cross. It is no more. Conviction is about sin that is being done, and joining Jesus in his wrath to destroy it, first of all, in myself.