Conviction

Daily Reading: Romans 2

Scripture Focus:  God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance. (Romans 2.4)

Devotional Thought: I know from raising children that sometimes the best thing that I could do for them was to make them feel my disappointment.  Oh it wasn’t that I wanted them to ever doubt my love, but I knew that they needed to know where Dad stood on certain issues and how he expected them to behave.  And, when they didn’t live up to it, they needed to know that they would receive my judgment.  (Don’t make me stop this van!)  Though they would take exception to this statement, it was indeed my kindness that caused my disappointment and their discipline.

I know that God is a merciful God and that he is not willing that any should perish, but rather that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3.9).  But, God is also righteous in his judgments as Paul states in Romans 2.5.  These two attributes combine in such a way that God’s love requires him to bring people to the point that they feel his judgment.  Otherwise, they would not be able to come to repentance and be saved.  God’s kindness indeed leads us toward repentance.

In the same way, it is God’s kindness that leads us to feel the weight of our sin.  That is called “conviction.”  Feeling this burden and experiencing the disappointment of God can be very painful and even frightening.  That is not God’s goal – to make us feel pain and be frightened.  His goal is to bring us to repentance so that we might leave our sin and live with peace and freedom in his holy purpose.  After all, that is why Christ died – to deliver us from our sin!

Prayer: Lord God, thank you for conviction, which gives me the impetus to turn from sin to your salvation.  Thank you for your kindness which gives me opportunity to repent and be saved.  I come to you now to receive your forgiveness through Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 25.1-7

1 To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul.

2 O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exult over me.

3 Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame; they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.

4 Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths.

5 Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.

6 Remember your mercy, O LORD, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.

7 Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O LORD!