In light of this week’s focus on anxiety, I am also thinking about how anxiety and guilt are often tied together. However, like a bad cough, guilt is not always productive. It may leave us helpless, passive, and further into despair. This is not a guilt from God that leads to conviction and action. It is from either ourselves (breaking rules we thought we never would, not doing what we always thought we would, having a demand but knowing we ought not), culturally accepted guilt (if you don’t serve someone who asks, you feel guilty because you were taught to always say yes), or the Accuser (intended to defeat us).
Does your guilt cause you to cling more tightly to the cross and to rehearse God’s promises for you and for his people? Or does it cause you to slink away into a far corner? If the latter, get up and do one little thing that shows your submission to God’s story of your life.
Musings on Faith and Psychology 
I can really waffle on this one. Sometimes I feel like I’m praising myself too much for the things I’m doing well. Is it positive reinforcement or pride? I often don’t know. Then other times I criticize myself for everything I do wrong. And is this despairing of sin or self-condemnation? Feeling guilty can be motivation to change or it can make me want to give up and hate myself. Sometimes the best test is not an objective look at what I tell myself (if that is even possible) but the effects my self-talk has on my behavior.
This sounds like a pat your self on the back bipolar instead of Christ