This, I find, is the absolute core of Christian discipleship. It’s the moment when we are revealed, by the Spirit of God, as culpable in some way or other. The fact is, we are all susceptible to mistakes and errors of judgement and morality. It’s when we are caught in the act, either by another person or by discerning it for ourselves, that we have the opportunity to respond to that cherished principle of the conviction of sin.
The Spirit of God pointed this phenomenon out to me during a recent counselling session where the person I was counselling identified this very wrestle. It lit a light in me.
I think we’ve all been there, in our pride, justifying our self-justification, all the while negating that conviction of heart that would propel us in the humility of restoring a relational dynamic.
In this moment, we sit on a precipice, as we listen to both the flesh and Spirit. The moment is a conquest between good and evil, between God and the enemy, between humility and pride, between right and wrong.
In this moment, we are very unlikely to look at the log on our own eye, preferring the attractive glint in the speck we see in the other person’s eye. If natural forces are to prevail, and most often they do, we will completely nullify that still silent voice that would lead us in the way everlasting, recalling that mightily cherished prayer of Psalm 139:23-24 —
“Search me, God, and know my heart... test me and know my anxious thoughts... see if there is any offensive way in me... and lead me in the way everlasting.”
None of us likes to pray this prayer or be this honest, because it requires us to submit to the sifting Spirit that challenges our pride. But this, right here, in the present context, is the absolute essence of Christian Living 101.
Indeed, Christian faith has nothing to do with knowing the Bible back to front, inside and out, being an expert on theology, knowing creeds, and all sorts of other knowledge that puffs us up.
What Christian faith is centrally about is
orienting the heart toward trust in God.
Orienting the heart toward trust in God requires us to fall into line with the truth. And so often the truth testifies against us, especially when we operate in self-justification and in the condemnation of others.
For any of us to sit there and ponder the war going on in the head and the heart as we choose between pride and humility when our sin is revealed, we have a cosmic choice before us.
90 percent of the time I’m sure we will go with the natural flow and stick with self-justification to our peril. But if only we can go against a record that would acquit us, preferring to see the inconvenient truth, we might turn toward the truth and choose to walk by faith, and be humbled by the truth that would set us and others free.
The person that goes the latter way of walking by faith, against the pride that’s been sifted by the cleansing Spirit, pours contempt on their pride, and walks directly into freedom — but they don’t experience the freedom UNLESS they first walk that way by faith.
This operation of being humbled by the Spirit of God when our pride is riled proves who we are really committed to. If we cannot submit to the sifting Spirit that challenges our pride, we really do not have a part in the Kingdom — it’s as simple as that.
We serve God when we love others, and this is done most especially in the heat of conflict. In the heat of conflict is when our true spiritual mettle is tested. Where humble hearts come together in conflict, an opportunity to transcend selfishness prevails. THIS is how Christians ought to behave with other Christians and with everyone else who don’t yet call Christ their Saviour, Lord, and King.
Those who don’t submit to the sifting Spirit that
challenges their pride don’t display the fruit of the Spirit.
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