Word of Encouragement (09/07/2023)

Is it not wheat harvest today? I will call upon the LORD, that he may send thunder and rain. And you shall know and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the LORD, in asking for yourselves a king." ¹⁸ So Samuel called upon the LORD, and the LORD sent thunder and rain that day, and all the people greatly feared the LORD and Samuel. (1 Sam. 12:17-18)

We talked about the benefits of being convicted of our sins. This can come about in many ways. Often, we get convicted only when we face some (temporal) negative consequences of our sin. This is better than nothing. Some people’s consciences are so seared by their repeated sins that they do not feel guilty about their sins. Even when negative consequences arise, they feel no need to repent of their sins; they try to minimize them with lies or, out of bitterness, go on to sin more. So, if our conscience is sensitive enough to feel the pang of regret when we taste the bitterness of sin’s effects, it is a reassuring thing, though not ideal.

Many of us get convicted of sin the moment we do what we are not supposed to do. We make the mistake of opening the door of our hearts to temptation instead of decisively turning away from it. When we do that, the temptation fastens itself to our minds and starts to whisper sweet but deadly words of seduction. We struggle against it for a while, but we eventually give up, lured by its promise of pleasure. But the moment we cross the line and allow the temptation to give birth to sin, we realize that sin is not what it is cooked up to be: we (again!) fell into the temptation’s false advertisement. So, we cry out, “Oh, no, what have I done?” You feel the effect of your conscience being tainted by sin even before you experience any negative temporal consequences. This is better than the first but still not ideal. (The ideal is not to sin in the first place, but here we are speaking of what is the “ideal” way of being convicted of sin.)

Let us observe how the Israelites came to be convicted of their sin: it was by becoming aware of God’s glory and holiness when Samuel prayed for thunder and rain. When God answered his prayer, they were terrified and pleaded with Samuel to pray for them. This is important to remember. For whatever reason, we may want certain religious experiences, including a strong conviction of sin. We pray for them. As we pray, we also try to figure out a way of obtaining such experiences. But we should remember that genuine religious experiences come when we have a genuine encounter with God. We can add the idea of having “right” religious experiences to this. Why? Because we may want to experience peace, but what we need may be a strong conviction of our habitual sin before we experience peace. When there is a heart-to-heart meeting between God and us, we will have whatever experience we need to have, which will prove to be what is good for us.

Do we need to have a supernatural event like the Israelites’ to have a genuine encounter with God? Of course not! If that were the case, we will need to have miracles every day! These special events took place and were recorded for us in the Bible so that, by reading about them, we can have an encounter with the same God by faith. When we read the Bible by faith, we are confronted by God in His self-revelation. So, why don’t you spend some time meditating on God—His attributes and His great works in history, including the one we reflected on? May the Lord meet you and grant you what you need!

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