25 Days of Christmas - Day 5

25 Days of Christmas - Day 5

"It was God [personally present] in Christ, reconciling and restoring the world to favor with Himself, not counting up and holding against [men] their trespasses [but canceling them], and committing to us the message of reconciliation (of the restoration to favor)." 2 Corinthians 5:19

In yesterday's devotional my husband wrote, "Shame and remorse washed over us as we reflected on what {or lack of what} we had given the Lord for all his love for us." This "shame and remorse" can be used in two ways: as conviction or as condemnation. It is the Holy Spirit that brings conviction to us, an awareness of our wrong doing. Condemnation is brought to us by the enemy.

Let us take a stroll into Funk & Wagnall Dictionary and look up what it is to be convicted and condemned:

convict - To prove guilty; find guilty after a judicial trail - 1.One serving a sentence inprison. 2. One found guilty of a crime.

condemn - 1.To hold to be wrong; censure. 2.To pronounce judicial sentence against. 3.To show the guilt of; convict. 4.To pronounce or declare to be unfit for use, usually by judicial order.

Part of the role of the Holy Spirit is to bring conviction into our lives, to make us aware of our sins so that we can take them to the cross, asking the Lord for forgiveness and then, with His help, strive to sin no more. Being convicted of our sins is not a bad thing for it makes us aware that we are sinners and are in need of a Savior to save us from a life of sinning! If we were blind and deaf and walking down an unfamiliar road and didn't recognize that there was a train heading our way, it would not matter that we could not see or hear that train, the end results would be the same - we would be dead! If we have sin and our lives and are unaware of it death is going to meet up with us whether we are aware of it or not. With this in mind, how good is our Lord's mercy that He would go to be with the Father and send the Comforter (Holy Spirit) our way so that we would be convicted of our sin and led by the Holy Spirit to our Lord's cleansing blood! Praise be to God! Thus it is important to have formed a relationship with our heavenly Father and His Son, and with the Holy Spirit so that we can build that sensitivity, that discernment through our fellowship with them. If the blind and deaf person has a sensitivity to the "movement" around them then the trains movement would cause them to be alert to their surroundings. If we have a sensitivity to the leading of the Holy Spirit we, too, can be spared from going into dangerous territory. But that is a subject for another time.

Isn't it interesting in the definitions of these two words that convict just shows us that we are guilty of a crime and condemn "shows" the guilt and proceeds "To pronounce or declare to be unfit for use,.. "? The enemy doesn't just tell us that we are guilty, he continues to show us how wrong we, that we are unfit for use. That, my dear ones, is a lie from the pit of hell and don't you allow him to steal from you the inheritance you have through Christ Jesus! Don't allow him kill the hope God has given you through His Son! And don't allow him to destroy the plans God has for your life! You see, even when the Holy Spirit is doing what is needed in bringing conviction into your life so that you will turn to the Lord and ask forgiveness in Jesus' name, the enemy would that you be held as one serving a sentence for their sins. And this can happen when one has been made mindful of their sins, that they become so ladened with their shame and remorse that they sentence themselves as unworthy, as unfit for the Master's use. Be assured, the Holy Spirit's task does not end there, for He leads you to the Lord, to the cross where there is a remission of sin by the shed blood of our Savior, and at the cross we are washed as white as snow. It is our prayer that you are sensitive to the Holy Spirit and the things that He is called to do in your lives. That you would not allow conviction to be turned into condemnation and in your weakness you would run into your loving Father's arms.

You see, dearly beloved, "It was God [personally present] in Christ, reconciling and restoring the world to favor with Himself, not counting up and holding against [men] their trespasses [but canceling them], and committing to us the message of reconciliation (of the restoration to favor)." God does not hold your sins against you if you believe on His Son and all that He has done. God has placed you in right standing with Him through Christ Jesus. He loves us so much and gave His all to reconcile us back to fellowship with Him. Go to Him in your weakness and allow Him to be your strength in Jesus' name....