"When I curl up on my sofa with God and his Word, that feeling that makes me want to bolt should be the feeling that keeps me there with him. It's the weight of my sin pushing me down from the high and lofty places where my pride would rather keep me... " [Pg 30] I love this passage! Have you had the feeling Jenni is talking about? Have you felt that desperate desire to run and hide from God. You know he knows what you did or said? Your heart is so heavy, the guilt almost unbearable. I was way past thirty when I was finally saw the effect guilt had. God showed me that His grace applied to me ~ and that guilt had separated me from Him. Being overwhelmed by guilt had led me to lose sight of God and his grace. That's called condemnation. Condemnation says: You can't make up for your mistakes. It yells in our head: You’re guilty! God can’t love you! There's no way to move forward after what you’ve done. But that's a lie! Christ died for my sins! And I was worthy of God's grace and forgiveness! Conviction is what God wanted me to feel because conviction is a good thing... (although it’s not always easy). Conviction is an alert. It’s a flagger on the highway telling you there’s construction ahead. Slow down. Pay attention. You’re coming up on a work zone with an opportunity to grow. Conviction brings awareness of a sin and tells you 'hey, we've got a problem we need to fix,' and this is the place GOD ALWAYS WANTS TO START because until the guilt beat-you-up stops, you can't see the true problem that caused the sin. They are two different words with two hugely different purposes. Condemnation separates. Conviction empowers and brings healing. Which one do you choose? Accept grace. Let guilt go. How did you feel about this week's reading? Have you experienced a similar moment?
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