 Do you have to promise God that you're never going to do that again before He will forgive you? The answer is absolutely not. If you felt sorry for what you did, you wouldn't have done it to start with. Most people, like me, like you, feel sorry when we get caught. But to promise God that we're not going to do it again is crazy. We have a sin nature. We have to learn how to keep that sin nature under control by means of the Holy Spirit.