I read somewhere this week, (must remember where) that there is a huge difference between being convicted by the Holy Spirit of our sinfulness and necessity of repentance; and being accused by the enemy of our souls.
I don't want to go into too much detail, but as we were talking about that this morning, I thought I would share our brief thoughts:
- When the Holy Spirit convicts one, from one's sin, there is this deep sense of repentance (I will turn away from it), but there is also this rest and peace which assures you that, on one's self, nothing can be changed. I think that's when we start developing humility (by realising how unworthy we are and that only God can change us).
- When the evil one accuses us, on the other hand, there is this HUGE sense of failure, that is followed by despair, and then sometimes as a consequence, our hearts are hardened by unbelief and a sense that it is impossible to continue in our great walk.
By telling you that you can not change, the enemy of our souls is:
1.Telling you that out of your power you could have done something but you didn't. So we often buy into the lie that if we could have done better somehow God would be pleased with us. See, the very reliance on your own "power" for sanctification or even witnessing is sinful pride (well, there isn't no-sinful pride anyway).
2.Telling you that the walk of faith is a walk of works, and that you base your salvation on your performance, not on your faith in God's grace and mercies.
So if your spiritual battle gets very strong and you think about despairing remember God's promises, because many times it is necessary to face giant Despair to realise how gracious our Master is!
May the Lord bless you today!
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2 Comments :
wow, never knew that, thank you for sharing. Do you remember where you read it?
This is actually something we just learned recently from reading the pilgrim's progress, when Christian got to the doubting castle,and he had to face Giant Despair.[ http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Pilgrim's_Progress/Part_I/Section_4#.5BBy-Path_Meadow_and_Giant_Despair.5D ]
He despaired almost to death, but what delivered Him was the key of promise.
That made a lot of sense to us.
I read somewhere about conviction of sin (but still don't remember where). We were also talking in the car about personal struggles and the need to confess, and trust that God is working mightly in our lives. A great deal of humility is also needed to accept the fact that we are always sinning...
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God bless!!