The Word of God is not only meant to comfort you, but to convict you. If God is pressing a portion of his Word up against your conscience, don’t resist.
This is Joni Eareckson Tada sharing hope.
Have you ever read a verse scores of times and then suddenly, on the sixty-fifth reading of it – zap! – the verse nails you squarely between your soul and your spirit? You’ve read these verses before and they’ve never bothered you. But suddenly a simple verse like, “Be holy as I am holy” or “Sanctify thyself” or “Follow me” or “Flee youthful lusts,” all of a sudden these verses sharply rebuke you for watching too much of the food channel or spending too much time on YouTube looking at dumb videos or even that little bit of lustful daydreaming you’ve been toying with lately. Any other time you would have skimmed right over those Bible verses, but now, these verses from the Word of God really hurt.
When that happens, you are experiencing firsthand the impact of Hebrews 4:12 where it says, “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any [two]-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” That’s right. The Word of God is not only there to comfort you, friend. It’s supposed to hurt you; and no wonder: it’s sharp; it’s convicting; it penetrates.
That’s what happens when the Word of God slices through that very thin line between your soul and your spirit, because your soul tends to get clouded by emotions and excuses, and it’s not always prone to conviction. Your soul is a place of feelings and wants and wishes and rationalizations. Your spirit, however, is different; your spirit bears witness with the Spirit of God as his truth hits home. Your spirit is that part of you that is most sensitive to the Holy Spirit – that’s because your spirit came alive when God first revealed his mercy to you and you first believed. And it’s the job of God’s Word to divide the soul and the spirit. The Word of God separates your feelings from the facts.
And we don’t like that. Our flesh gets uneasy; it gets squeamish when God’s Word rightly divides our attitudes and actions. And so, often we may reread the verse, double-checking to make certain that we heard God right. And we’ll do anything to justify our feelings and make excuses. But if we are honest, the verse still pierces and stings our conscience and we have been wounded by the Word of God.
Andrew Murray put it this way; he said, “Jesus has no tenderness toward anything that is ultimately going to ruin a man in service to Him. If God brings to your mind a verse which hurts you, you may be sure that there is something He wants to hurt.” Wow! And that, my friend, is the way we grow in Christ. So, if the Holy Spirit is pressing some portion of God’s Word up against your conscience; if it’s revealing emotions and attitudes and thoughts and actions that need to change, do not resist. Believe me, no one has ever gone up against the Word of God and won. So what do you think of when God’s Word says sanctify yourself, or flee youthful lusts, or do not keep a record of other’s wrongs? Today, let’s not view our disobedience as a vague generality, as when we say, “God, forgive me, a sinner.” Instead let’s ask ourselves: “What sins? Specifically – come on now – how have I disobeyed specifically?” Today, try to make a list of at least ten specifics. Are you having trouble doing that? Then ask God to place the sword of his Word between your soul and your spirit and reveal to you things in your life that need to change.
© Joni and Friends