Making amends
Hi, I am having a bit of problem that I am not sure how to solve in regard to correcting wrongs. You see when I was a college student, my friend lent me his Netflix login info for about a year. I used it on a few occasions throughout the year and went on to get my own Netflix account. But I still feel guilty because I did not pay for it when my friend lent me his. You see lending someone else your Netflix info is a violation of the Terms of Service (which I did not while I was using my friend's account). I want to try to pay Netflix back, but my family says that seems crazy since Netflix is a transaction based business and does not take donations (This would cost $192 total). Similarly, for the last 3 years of my college education I have had an Amazon Prime Student Account which is half the price of a regular prime account. I was unaware of this until last week, but I found out from the Terms of Service that I am not supposed to share my account or account benefits with my family (My mom runs the account). I feel guilty and want to pay Amazon for those three years as a regular account (Which would cost $360 total). I know that God forgives me and I know that I cannot correct everything I have done wrong. I just want to correct the things I can. I do not know if I am doing this to please God or instead appease my guilty conscience and sense of pride. I just want your opinion on if trying to pay the money back is an idea that makes sense, or should I just ask God for forgiveness and move on?
As Christians, we confess our sins to God (Psalm 32:5). We know that such confession is not meaningless; God forgives sins (1 John 1:9).
Your question concerns fruits of repentance: undoing a wrong or making amends for what we have done. Since you stated that you cannot make donations to the companies you mentioned, I imagine a course of action could be buying gift cards for those businesses and then giving them to others. That way, you would be returning money to the businesses without deriving personal benefit. The decision on what to do is entirely yours.
If you do happen to go that route, I trust you will maintain the distinction between proper fruits of repentance and improper thoughts about the forgiveness of sins. God’s forgiveness is full and free. Our actions do not contribute to our forgiveness (Titus 3:5). God’s blessings to you and your family!