“Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor,” James 4:9-10 tells us. When you think about your past, your struggles, and the sin that once riddled your life, how does it make you feel? While we shouldn’t live in the past, there should be a godly sorrow or grief over the sins that were committed toward God.
Sin is rebellion against God, so it should always make us grieve. Think of a child and a parent. If a child and parent have a good relationship, the child will want to please the parent and will have a sense of regret or sorrow when breaking their trust. That is how we should be with the Lord. There should be regret when we go against His Word and choose ourselves and our desires instead.
Only when we begin to grieve over our sin and shame, can our hearts begin to change. We can move past our sin when we acknowledge it. We must admit that there was a problem and want a change. That is what true repentance is- turning away from sin.