BIBLE PASSAGE:
“Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our
God, and the power of His Christ: for the accuser of our brethren
is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.”
(Revelation 12:10)
MEDITATION:
We will be miserable Christians if we don’t learn the difference
between ‘Holy Spirit conviction’ and ‘Satanic accusation’.
When the Holy Spirit convicts us of a sin, He will
cause us to feel bad for our failures and He will
put His finger right on the sore spot and push.
We desperately need His conviction if we ever
expect to overcome the sin that so easily entangles us.
He will convict us specifically,
and He will convict us legitimately.
If the devil doesn’t convict us of all our sins in general,
he will try to accuse us of a specific sin that we have
forsaken (or at least are trying to forsake).
That’s how he works, doesn’t he?
He wants to convince us that God might forgive
others for their sins, but He has not forgiven us for ours.
Why would Satan do that?
Because he knows that if he can cause us to continue to ‘feel dirty’,
we will remain closer to the sin than we are to the God who forgave us.
Let’s be honest, it’s fairly safe to say that each of us
have at least one sin that we are vulnerable to committing.
We know it’s there and we go through periods of abstention,
but then it returns (and in some cases seems even stronger).
We want to abstain, but a voice in our mind keeps telling us
that we have already failed, so what difference does it make
if we commit the sin again.
We can be led to believe that our sin
is not as bad as we originally thought.
Adding fuel to that thought, we start to rationalize that many
others are committing the same sin, so it is somewhat normal.
We end up comparing our sin to man’s standards and not God’s.
So what usually happens is, we start desensitizing ourselves
from feelings of guilt so that we can enjoy the sin more.
However, if we truly belong to the Lord,
our guilt will rise up again and we will
once again feel remorse for sinning against the Lord.
It can become a vicious circle, can’t it?
At some point, we realize that it is too powerful for us to overcome
in our own strength, so we ask the Lord to help us, but too often
we are asking while holding on to a desire to continue with our sin.
It is almost as if we are saying, “Lord, help be to overcome this
sin in my life (but don’t take away my desire completely)”.
Consequently, we experience difficulty with finding
peace, contentment, and joy in our lives, because we
fail to realize it is a result of our lack of sincerity.
We start trying all kinds of ways to rid our lives of this restlessness
(alcohol, drugs, more sinning, new attitudes, etc.), but nothing can
completely remove this constant churning of agitation from our lives.
Whenever we take the time to understand our cause
of failure, we will realize that when we ask the Lord
for His help, we have to ‘mean it’ with no reservations.
We have to admit that we are tired of this road we are on.
As long as our sin desire remains, we will continue having this
turmoil churning in our lives and this continual sin will cause us
to question our salvation, and wonder if God even hears our prayers.
Instead of growing closer to the Lord,
we will experience the pain of drifting farther away from Him.
It happens to all of us, and will continue happening until
we sincerely ask the Lord to remove this desire in us without any
stipulations (and believe that He will actually answer our prayers).
It is a painful effort on our part, because even though we want to be
obedient to the Lord, we still have feelings that we will lose something
familiar and enjoyable to us (except for the guilt involved).
What we fail to consider is the fact that the Lord can, and will,
remove our desire, and when He does, He will fill the void
with something much more gratifying to us, and pleasing to Him.
Satan doesn’t want us to believe that something righteous
can ever replace anything that is “edgy”, causes us to feel
a little naughty, and gives us momentary pleasure.
He wants to convince us that we are not really classified
as a sinner, but we are just someone who sins at times
(even though we know it happens way too frequently
and for some of us, it has become a lifestyle).
Satan wants us to think that we are just ‘playing around’
with some sin, but it doesn’t have control of us (yeah, right).
In order to understand the seriousness of this line of thinking,
we need to consider the message in these three verses:
No one who lives in Him keeps on sinning. No one who
continues to sin has either seen Him or known Him. (1 John 3:6)
No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s
seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they
have been born of God. (1 John 3:9)
We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin;
the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil
one cannot harm them. (1 John 5:18)
It all comes down to this:
Do we really want to break the chains
of the sin that controls us, so we can grow closer to the Lord?
Do we really want to rid ourselves of this restlessness
in our lives, and our feelings of alienation from our Creator?
Do we sincerely trust the Lord to remove our desire and
replace it with something more pleasurable and rewarding?
Do we believe we can find more enjoyment from what the Lord
(who loves us) can provide, than any pleasure we will receive
from what the evil one (who hates us) can offer?
The truth is, we cannot expect the Lord to help us in ways that we
could never imagine, as long as we ask Him to remove our desire
while gripping it tightly, because we enjoy it so much
(even though we know it has control of us and
is dragging us farther away from the Lord).
We need to pray and confess to the Lord that we enjoy the sin
in our life, but we know it is destroying our relationship with Him.
We need to admit that we are tired of living this way, and we want to
“trade” our lifestyle for the one He can give us (which is much better).
When Satan is in control, we can expect turmoil,
restlessness, guilt, disappointment with ourselves, etc,
but when God is in control we can experience and welcome
new levels of peace, joy, contentment, closeness to the Lord, etc.
Will this be an easy transition?
Of course not!
Is it a transformation that we need to make?
Absolutely, if we want to grow closer to the Lord and
enjoy the blessings He promises to those who are obedient.
ACTION:
Are you under conviction or accusation today about an unconfessed sin?
Read the following:
The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent
called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray.
He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. Then
I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the
salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and
the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers
and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night,
has been hurled down. They triumphed over him by the blood
of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not
love their lives so much as to shrink from death.”
(Revelation 12:9-11)
Pray,
“Heavenly Father, you know of the sin battle in my life
right now, and I know You can help me to have victory
over it. Forgive me for the times I have prayed for You
to remove it, but have not been sincere in my request. I
am tired of being a victim and a slave to this sin, so today
I ask You to remove this sin from my life and my desires
to continue committing it, so that I can grow closer to You
and enjoy the blessings You have for me. You are strong
where I am weak and I trust You to do what I cannot do
in my own strength. Thank You for hearing my prayer
and for what You will be doing in my life!”
BREAD FOR BELIEVERS 
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