I remember teaching my children a valuable lesson. I taught them that if they did something wrong it would be much better if they came to me with it first. My oldest son found this out first hand. He was playing with a baseball in the yard, hitting it around. I told him to stay away from the house with it, so he didn’t break anything. I was in the house and I heard a noise. I looked at my Mama and asked, “What was that?” She replied, “I don’t know.” Before I could make 2 steps my son had come inside to tell me that he had gotten close to the house and busted his bedroom window out. I told him, “Okay, let’s go fix it.” That was it, no fussing, just let’s fix it.
Too often people do something wrong and have the wrong response. Be it a minor mistake or fall into sin, they mess up. Then they run from God. Adam and Eve did this. They disobeyed God, then they tried to hide from Him.
We find both sides of this coin in Peter and Judas. Judas betrayed Jesus and Peter denied Jesus. They both were guilty. The difference is what they did afterwards. The guilt overcame Judas and instead of seeking forgiveness he hung himself. Peter on the other hand got forgiveness. I believe if Judas would have sought forgiveness he would have gotten it. It says in Romans 6:23 (KJV) For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Sin will always result in death. Not necessarily a physical death, but a spiritual death which is much worse. God’s gift of forgiveness though results in eternal life through Jesus. So when you fall don’t let guilt drive you away from God. Rather let it cause you to run to Him seeking forgiveness.
1 John 1:9 NET But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness.