We've been reminded in the past couple of years to anchor around 2 very important truths: the truth that discouragement and self condemnation are no entry roads.
 
One way I have struggled with self-condemnation in the past is to be condemned over things which I can't really tell what's the problem, just a feeling that "I must be letting God down in some way. I'm probably not doing good. I don't know how but He's just not happy with me because I'm not doing well overall."
 
The Lord showed me that's the devil's tactic.  And that it's critical to be able to distinguish between the 2 things: conviction and condemnation.
 
Conviction is SPECIFIC: God will point out exactly what my sin was, "That was sin, you need to repent of that and make it right."  That is of the Holy Spirit.
 
Condemnation is very GENERAL: "You're not doing good. You're being very unspiritual."  For example the devil may say: "You're not keeping a clean conscience" (and then we have no idea what sin is causing our conscience to not feel right, so we have no idea what to repent of).  And guilt can come. To give into this is basically just to be following our feelings.
 
Condemnation puts a "period" after it speaks, but conviction puts a "comma" after it speaks, because there's hope:
 
Condemnation is judgment: "This was sin. You are a great sinner."
 
But conviction has hope after the reproof: "This was sin, but you can overcome, you must master it by the power of the Holy Spirit - the Helper."
 
If the devil cannot make us blatantly chase sin (love the world, money, lust, etc - that's his first method), then for sincere Christians he will labor to make the Christian life so heavy that we feel we can't carry it.
 
I was encouraged today that's not God's will at all.  If the Christian life is heavy, there's something wrong.  And I believe Jesus gave the way out of it in Matthew 11:28-30.
 
"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." 
 
First, repent of all KNOWN (conscious sins) to do God's will (take His yoke - the cross), and secondly, go to the Lord and trust His mercy for everything else that is not clear to me (rest in His work, not our own).
 
God's will is not for us to be living in some "gray/blurry" area where we have no idea what's going on and always worried and panicked and struggling over "What if".  If we know God's love as a Father and fall on the total mercy of Jesus (trusting Him to cover all we CAN'T clearly see) we can be delivered from that.
 
"Take my yoke... and you will find rest"
 
If our rest is rooted in our performance and how we "feel we are doing" before God, we will always go into 1 of 2 evils: 1. Self Condemnation, or 2. Pride
 
I've struggled with it many times but God is so merciful and helps us get out of that, if we seek Him for it.  And keep going back to that truth.
 
I hope that as a church, we can continue in that freedom from discouragement and condemnation and run the race with a joy, free from all the "weight of guilt", and rest only completely in the Lord's mercy alone.