Standing

Do you stand up for anything or do you just let everything go on without any conviction at all?  People who have no convictions at all will keep doing the same things over and over again.  Whether it be a bad habit that results in sin or just blatant, outright sin, the results are the same, the Bible says, “The wages of sin is death.”  

Everybody should take a stand for something, for example Christians should take a stand against evil which results in sin and a whole host of other things, but many times it doesn’t seem to happen.  We should get angry at what is going on in our world, our government and even what goes on in many of our churches and also the things we may hear from the pulpit, but many never do.  

Jesus was angry when He saw what was going on in the temple and everyone knew about it.  Did Jesus have a negative spirit?  A thousand times no, but He did have a righteous anger and so should we at some of the things that go on in some churches today.  Think of this, if you will not stand for ‘something,’ you will fall for ‘anything.’  

When the Holy Spirit convicts someone of sin, repentance should follow which should result in a conviction causing them to try hard, with the Lord’s help, not to do the same thing again.  The Holy Spirit convicts people of sin in many forms, one of which is when the Word of God is spoken or read, and when that conviction occurs, it should be acted upon positively for the betterment of the person that is being convicted.  Sometimes your convictions can seem to others like a negative spirit. 

Many people don’t act upon the Holy Spirit’s conviction in their lives, like King David when he committed adultery with Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba.  Do you think David didn’t know that what he was doing was wrong and a gross sin?  Sure he did.  What about when he had her husband killed to cover up his sin, did he know that it was sin?  Of course he did, and even though he was convicted he pushed it aside because he wanted to do his own thing, just like so many of us do.  We sweep conviction under the rug, so to speak, and we go on our way trying to convince ourselves that everything is all right, but in God’s eyes sin is never right, it is punished.  

It wasn’t until about a year after his sins took place, when David was confronted by the prophet of God, that he repented of the sins he was guilty of, which seems like a long time but think about this, how long have some of you been hanging onto your unconfessed sin?  Did you notice when David repented of these sins he never did them again?  Repentance should always be the result of the Holy Spirit’s convictions in a person’s life.  If Judas would have truly repented when he betrayed Jesus, and confessed his sin, instead of going out and hanging himself, the story may have turned out much different than it did, but all he demonstrated was worldly sorrow and not godly sorrow like David did.  

Repentance, godly sorrow and confession are always a good place to start when you are convicted by the Holy Spirit of sin and it should happen right away, the sooner the better.  And thank God for the conviction of His Spirit, without it we would be in a terrible situation.  Be careful to stand for what is biblical and don’t allow yourselves to be just plain critical of everything.  Be sure that what you stand for is truth and you can’t go wrong, regardless of what others think of you.

Food for thought!  Have a great day and may God bless you and yours!!