The Joy of Conviction
God is good. All He does is good. He is the source of all goodness. He is and has pure unadulterated concentrated goodness at His core. When we leave the source of all goodness - Him (His direction, His counsel, His word, His plan) - all we can go to is simply not good.
When we’re convicted, it’s our internal radar telling us that we’ve left all that’s good and are headed towards not good.
Therefore, conviction leads us back to his goodness. His absolute best and greatness. That. Is. Glorious.
But it doesn’t always feel that way.
Shame tells us who we are is wrong when conviction points out what we did is wrong. Another way to look at it is what we just did is not aligned with God’s absolute goodness and how He would have handled that situation.
Thank God for His conviction. It means you’re intimately close to His heart and are being invited into more of His goodness.
I literally get excited when convicted. Well, usually it’s after my initial feelings of wanting to run and hide, get defensive, or sad and beat myself up. But, what I’m learning is to celebrate because what I’ve just learned is what I did was not the way He would have done it. It’s not in line with my character and who I am supposed to be - the man I dream about - the man He says I am. He is championing me. He’s teaching me to live in and live out the fullness of Him in me.
We are more than our behavior.
I’m afraid for most of us, we’ve been introduced to behaviors as merely right and wrong. While I do believe there are behaviors that are right and wrong, I also believe that the ultimate goal isn’t “right” but fullness, wholeness, and long term-joy. Conviction isn’t declaring you right or wrong, good or evil. It’s redirecting you to the fullness of what God intended.
God’s goal isn’t to judge everyone, it’s to restore them to their fullness of original design. He didn’t just want you in His kingdom, He wants you reigning, unhindered, and living full. He is championing you.
So many of us get hurt because we’ve made our identity or worth as a person determined by our behavior and ability to perform. We’ve become fragile and therefore, anyone confronting us poses a threat to our self-worth. We’ve got to get over ourselves. You are made for greatness. You are made to be championed. We will never become the greatness or do the greatness you were created for if you only live at your capacity or your comfort level of correction. Conviction is recognizing the places we’ve learned to compensate for a hurt, wound, insecurity, different belief, or coping mechanism SO THAT we can be healed, restored, covered, and made full. It’s not pointing out your flaws simply for exposure, but unveiling a coping mechanism that we can be healed to do without it. We live in constant tweaking and adjustments to make alignments so that life can flow from God to us and through us.
Shame has calloused us from conviction.
Many of us have had bad experiences with this. Leaders or parents have been scared, insecure, or unable to champion us the way they wanted - so they’ve used fear and shame. They’ve used rules, do nots, and direct or cultural shame. It wasn’t a “come back to goodness,” it was a “I can’t believe you did that.” As we grow, we either drown in shame or become calloused to the accusations of wrong doing. Unfortunately, sometimes when the Holy Spirit does want to convict us back into Goodness, we equate that to religious shame and disregard an invitation for His correction, which leads to joy and satisfaction. You can see this in people who go do whatever they want under the premise of being “shame free” but in reality, they’ve just shut down the ability to be taught, corrected, or lead into hard things.
That’s what’s scary for me, when I don’t hear conviction happening anymore in my life or my friend’s life. I don’t need to be corrected, but I do want to be fully alive and living in His goodness, which means I usually need to continue to adjust. The lack of hearing correction usually comes from ignoring the invitation to repent and change previously. I want Him to lead me.
God is not scared, insecure, or unable to champion us. He is really good at healing people, really good at championing them, really good at restoring them. He does not need to use shame or fear. He uses His goodness to tell us where He wants to take us. Sometimes He also lets us know if we choose to go away what the natural consequences will be. It’s not manipulation. It’s empowering your choice showing you both outcomes. Havilah Cunnington pointed out, “You can choose your actions, but you don’t get to choose your consequences.” Conviction is letting you know you’re out of alignment and there is pain that is happening or about to happen as a result of your behaviors. He wants to realign you to goodness.
Does it hurt? Oh yeah, it doesn’t always feel great but I know it’s great because on the other side is greater life.
The realignment of our lives.
Sometimes conviction leads us to fix an action we just took: you snapped when you were angry or overwhelmed or pushed past your loved one’s boundaries. Your goal was to love and protect them, but your action wasn’t inline with that so you need to repent and clean up the mess. Sometimes, it’s more than an action but a repeated action, lifestyle, or a coping mechanism: you manipulate those around you so you feel safe and in control, you keep having random hookups because you can’t trust anyone of the opposite sex, or can’t stop looking at porn to not feel so alone. These are actions we’ve developed that share how our needs realigned to let life and goodness flow through us.
Consider this: Much like how a spinal disc being out of place prevents nerve signals from flowing correctly and can cause shooting pains throughout all areas of your body, when we live in sin (outside the goodness of God) it causes serious pain and blocks the flow of life. When God convicts us, He’s pointing out the dislocation of our being and wants to put it back in alignment so His life and goodness can flow throughout.
See, when the Holy Spirit wants to adjust and address something out of place, He is not only adjusting that issue, but retraining your muscles / lifestyle to hold differently so it doesn’t slip back out of place. Conviction is the pointing out where the slipped disc is, repentance is agreeing with Him as to where it should be and letting Him put it back in place. This often requires a change of lifestyle so it doesn’t slip back out. It’s often with the help of counselors, pastors, and our community that we can look at the pain points and find what’s out of place. We shift our mindsets, our beliefs, our hearts, then life flows and our behaviors change.
It’s not simply behavior modification, it’s changing your heart’s posture from self-protection to surrender. It’s realignment of our souls to let life flow. It’s giving up your ways of doing things and allowing God to be the ultimate source of truth in your life and not your feelings or understanding lead you. When I accept conviction and repent, I’m subscribing to a higher destiny for my life, a greater understanding than my decades here, and taking an active step of trusting that God is better than I think I am. I’m signing up for His goodness in my life and not my understanding or my ability to create my own goodness in my life.
This is why there is joy in conviction. He is good. All He desires is good. All He desires for our life is good. Conviction is simply Him pointing out where we’ve left that and asking for us to realign our thinking and our lives to let His goodness flow through us again.
If you find yourself feeling pressure to perform or drowning in shame instead of embracing His alignment of our life, consider this conversation with God.
God, I’m honestly a little afraid to engage with you on this. I know that you’re good but I need you to break shame and performance off me. Will you come and show me your goodness and your love for me? Show me any lies that I believe about you or my place in You that stops me from embracing all of You. I’m choosing to trust you that you have good for me and want to lead me in that. I surrender my desire to self-protect and self-satisfy and I open myself up to your goodness. You have full permission to correct, adjust, and align my life, my thoughts, and my behaviors. Please show me what you’re doing with me and give me vision for the man/woman you’re making me to be. Make me more like Jesus. Amen.
