Conviction Versus Condemnation

God forgives us before we forgive ourselves; why is this so? Many do not understand that as soon as we request forgiveness from the Most High, with pureness of heart and motive, it is granted. God then casts those past faults into the sea of forgetfulness (Micah 7:19). However, many of us go days, weeks, months, and years beating ourselves up (actually down) inside for past discretions which have been forgotten on purpose by the KING! Please understand that once you repent and ask for forgiveness, God does not then bring condemnation onto you about the crime committed. Moreover, God’s Holy Spirit does not bring condemnation before the repentance either. The Holy Spirit convicts which is miles apart different from being condemned.

With conviction there comes an urgency to right the wrong, i.e. “I should not have said that, because that was not nice.” This conviction brought the immediate response to ask for forgiveness from God and the affected parties. Do you see what happened? Your entire mindset about the incident changed: now you have learned (because The Holy Spirit teaches through conviction) that it’s not nice to say certain things to people. Case closed! However, when the enemy is at work, he can take this same scenario and bring condemnation. For example, replacing the teaching portion with questions like “who do you think you are to say something like that to her; you have some nerve?” Such statements cause us to recoil back into ourselves, and like an injured animal lick the wounds of condemnation with self pity.

We now mope around feeling sorry for ourselves because instead of receiving immediate instruction and peace from the Holy Spirit, we have now allowed the enemy to add insult to injury. This phenomenon is witnessed when someone tries to help the injured animal; he lashes out on the first person who tries to provide aid to the ailment. Therefore this cycle of self-loathing and lashing out on innocent people quickly leads to depression. People if you don’t remember anything else that I wrote today, please understand that God brings conviction, not condemnation. Therefore, just like God (when conviction takes place), you should be able to forgive yourself and move on. As soon as negative thoughts regarding your actions begin to linger and replay in your mind, an alarm should sound alerting you that the enemy is attempting to bring condemnation.

Be blessed good people and know that God did not come to sentence the world but to save the world! He loves us and wants nothing but the best for us.

Nikki D