Keep Coming Back!
Guarding Our Inner Life | Step 10 — Maintaining Progress
“Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.”
Why Come Back?
Jehovah… is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance… Be diligent that you may be found by Him in peace, without spot, and blameless. Beware lest you… fall from your own steadfastness. ( 2 Peter 3:9, 14, 17 )
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour. ( 1 Peter 5:8 )
As a Christian, I've learned many good things about confession, repentance, amends — and perhaps the most important of all: surrender. But knowledge isn't enough. God provides the opportunities. He prompts me to action. Then I must choose to align my will with His and continually seek Him. When I do, He works in me "to will and to do according to His good pleasure" ( Philippians 2:12-13 ).
Even so, when I fail to choose His way, He never leaves me nor forsakes me ( Hebrews 13:5 ). All I need to do is admit my mistake to God — and to anyone else I may have wronged ( James 5:16 ). When I do that, God "is faithful and just to forgive my sins, and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness" ( 1 John 1:9 ). Others may or may not forgive me. That's between them and God.
After I confess and make amends, I'm assured I've done my part. Since Jesus paid the price — death itself — for my sin ( Romans 6:23 ), our Father releases me from guilt. So I choose to reject the temptation — that persistent shaming voice of the enemy — to beat myself up over past failures. Instead, I keep diligently seeking His will, trusting that He still loves me and is still showing me a better way to live.
Shame is not the voice of God — and that distinction matters more than most people realize.
The Shaming Accuser vs. The Convicter of Guilt
The Convicter
Jesus said the Holy Spirit would "convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment" ( John 16:8 ). This conviction is specific and leads to life. When we are convicted of our guilt, then confess our sin, our Father is faithful to forgive us and cleanse us ( 1 John 1:9 ). This is conviction, leading to confession, leading to forgiveness — and the righteousness of Christ applied to us ( Philippians 3:8-10 ).
The Accuser
Shame — condemnation, accusation — comes from satan, whose specific role is to accuse believers after they have already been forgiven. Revelation 12:10 explicitly names satan as "the accuser of our brothers," who "accuses them before our God day and night." In Zechariah 3:1, satan stands to accuse Joshua the high priest. Joshua is already clothed in filthy garments representing sin, yet satan continues to accuse him even as God is in the process of cleansing him. This mirrors the temptation to believe you are still "filthy" even after God has promised to clothe you in pure garments ( Zechariah 3:4 ).
Conclusion
So when I take my personal inventory and find something that needs correcting, I must ask myself: Is this conviction or condemnation? Conviction points to a specific thought, word, or action and comes with an invitation to make it right. Condemnation just hangs over me like a fog, with no exit and no remedy offered. One is the voice of our Father. The other is of satan.
"Be not conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." (Romans 12:2)
"Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever. Amen." (2 Peter 3:18)