Monday, August 8, 2016

A Loving Father's Guidance


Today I reflected once again on conviction vs. condemnation as a sense of conviction stirred within me.

So many people today avoid God because of either condemnation or conviction only because they don’t understand the difference. When God convicts us, it is out of His love for us. It is His way of guiding us away from potential trouble. Condemnation on the other hand is from satan. It's critical that we can recognize the difference so that we can retain joy in our life.

Conviction is God’s way of speaking to us. For example, if a thought comes such as “I really need to…”, “I shouldn’t have…” that is from God. It’s His way of trying to show us a better way of handling a situation. It isn’t meant for us to feel badly about ourselves. It’s His way of saying we can improve. How often have we spoken too quickly only to regret what we said. God will convict us of that so that we can avoid that regret in the future. He will try to urge us to take a few seconds before reacting to see if what we are about to utter is appropriate or necessary or even possibly to allow Him to coach us in a better way to handle the situation or give us better words to speak.

Condemnation on the other hand is from satan who tries to tear us down. Words such as “you’re such a loser”, “you’ll never get it right”, “what makes you think you deserve…”, “you always say the wrong thing”, “no one likes you.” He will personally attack you. Those thoughts we need to chase away with a stiff warning to satan that you are not about to fall into his trap.

Satan will try to bring to your attention your weak areas. Especially those things which you regret doing. He will bring things that happened years ago back to your thoughts to make you hate yourself, or cry, or become angry. Those are not from God. God doesn’t remember your past mistakes. God only cares about your future not your past. That is extremely important to remember.

Granted we will be judged on everything we’ve done in our life on the Day of Judgment. However, if we are born again our sins are forgiven and we can come boldly before God’s throne. As long as we have repented of the sins we are aware of committing all will be good. It’s impossible for us to repent on all the sins we’ve ever committed since we often aren’t aware of all of them. God knows our heart. He knows whether we are repentive or not. God knows if we’ve make Jesus Lord of our life, or if we’ve made ourself lord and savior.

Don't get me wrong, sin is deadly. Sin will rob us of God's best for our lives. Convictions are areas where we are committing sin which we need to take seriously.

I saw a tweet that started to arise anger inside of me. Instead of reacting immediately like I would have in the past, I waited for Jesus to bring a scripture to my attention. It didn’t take long before a minister tweeted a sermon "What Kind Of Christian Are You". I listened and immediately the minister quoted a verse from the Bible which was a direct answer to the situation. There are times, God brings to my attention where I'm wrong. Or gives me a different way of examining the situation. We never know where the answer will come from but we will always know when it is God speaking to us through other people.

I’ve learned to trust the Lord more than myself and He always comes through. What a wonderful Father we have that He is always present in our lives to guide us, comfort us, teach us, and shower us with His love.



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