When I was around four or five years old, my mom had just made a plate of Christmas cookies and set them out on the counter. They looked delicious, so I asked my mom if I could have a small cookie. She told me yes, but just a small one since we were getting ready to go to bed soon. I proceeded to get the biggest gingerbread man I could find on the plate, ate the whole thing in the kitchen before going back out to the living room, and pretended like nothing happened.
Well, my mom was in fact not born yesterday, so she went into the kitchen and saw that the biggest cookie was gone, (and my pile of crumbs to prove that the cookie had in fact been quite a bit larger than I’d let on.) She confronted me about it, and I burst into tears. This was the first lie I remember telling, and I never wanted to feel that way again. After much snot and tears, she explained that not telling the whole truth was still a lie, and if I lied to her, how could she trust me? Needless to say, I never tried the great “cookie swap” trick again.
I thought I could get away with it. I got greedy with my cookie desires, and I got caught. But it was the thought of my mom not being able to trust me that scared me the most. (And the tummy ache I got from so much sugar probably helped drive the point home, too.)
We think that we can sin and get away with it. You can try for a time to cover up sin, but rest assured, your sin will find you out. God doesn’t want us to get away with it, because sin hurts us! Conviction is not a bad word, it is actually mercy. If God didn’t love us, He would not convict us of sin, therefore giving us an opportunity to change and grow.
2 Samuel 12:1-14
“And the LORD sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said to him, “There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. And he brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children. It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him. Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.” Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the LORD lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.” Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. And I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ Thus says the LORD, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.’” David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” And Nathan said to David, “The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the LORD, the child who is born to you shall die.””
Conviction in this story is the sound of Nathan’s voice reminding him of what was right. Conviction is a reminder that we are God's sons and daughters. And while we do have free will, he wants us to live inside the boundaries He has set up.
Matthew 7:13-14
““Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
It’s really easy to lose ourselves in the ease of this life. It’s easy to mask pain in the bottom of a whiskey glass. It’s easy to try to find comfort in the arms of a partner. But it comes with a high cost, one that God paid by sending Jesus. We don’t have to pay that price, but how often do we get sidetracked by the wide path that leads to death?
Conviction is a GPS: God Positioning System. But you have to actually listen to the GPS to arrive at the destination. You have to listen to the Holy Spirit’s conviction in order to stay on the right path!
Romans 3:23
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
King David didn’t fight back when Nathan confronted him, he didn’t try to make excuses. He said I have sinned. He owned it.
Are You Listening?
God always gives us a choice. But are we listening?
With conviction comes a promise. Every time God brings conviction into your heart, He is saying He has more for you than the easy comfort of this life. If we will trust Him, His way will be so much better. The promise of what He has in store for you is better than what you would provide for yourself.
Will you fight for you? The real you? God's version of you. Will you fight like David did—on his knees? He humbled himself and asked for God's forgiveness. He was faithful to take away David’s sin.
But he still had to pay consequences. David was able to come back into right relationship with God, but he still had to deal with the consequences.
I tell my kids this all the time: “you can either discipline yourself, or I can do it for you.” When we become adults, we can decide to be disciplined, or God will do it for us. If we decide not to listen, the consequences of our actions will be our discipline. Do we want to do it the hard way, or the little less hard way? It’s never “easy”, but His way is good.
Hebrews 12:5-9
“And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.”
God’s conviction is His loving discipline. It gives us the opportunity to change direction from following the path that leads to death and get back on the path to life. It would not be loving for a parent to allow their child to start a fire in their room and leave them to it. The consequence is death! In the same way, it is not loving for God to allow us to continue to operate in sinful patterns and practices. The consequence is death! Rather, it is for love that He disciplines us. We are His children if we come under discipline from the Spirit!
All too often, we want to live life our own way and still have God show up when we need Him. But the world was never changed by people without conviction. The world is changed by people who say, “This is my line, and I will not be moved.”
His conviction might lead you into a fire, but His hand will lead you out of it. Keep staying faithful.
James 4:17
If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
It’s really very simple. Read the Word and spend time with Jesus to figure out what is the right way, and then do it!
