Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
What's the use of getting up early to pray if your sins have broken your connection with God? That's the problem that brought Jesus to this world, in order to solve it. He is our Savior from sin. He welcomes sinners to come, just as they are. Someone might say, "But the Bible says that the Lord is seeking people 'whose heart is loyal to Him,' and I am not perfect!" (2 Chron. 16:9). That's the very reason why He invites you to have a visit with Him, so you can talk to Him and He can communicate with you. In fact, the people whom He especially invites for such a reasoning session with Him are those whose "sins are like scarlet, ... red like crimson," for He says, "Come now, and let us reason together" (Isa. 1:18).
But here's the objection: "The more I pray, the more sinful I feel myself to be!" Hold on, don't run away: that is how it should be, for the first work of the Holy Spirit when He comes to anyone is to "convict ... of sin" (John 16:8). The truth is, that's a good experience, for it is first-hand experiential evidence that God loves you individually, personally. That same passage in Isaiah that speaks of the Lord inviting us to come for a reasoning session with Him tells us what our problem is. We are "sick," like having a spiritual cancer: "Your head is already covered with wounds, and your heart and mind are sick. From head to foot there is not a healthy spot on your body" (Isa. 1:5, 6, GNB).
That cannot be Bad News if you believe the Good News that you have a Physician "nigh at hand." If we never know our true condition, we are like the symphony orchestra conductor who collapsed from a heart attack on the podium before a vast crowd of concertgoers and died in the midst of his orchestra--we need the Holy Spirit to tell us the truth about our spiritual health before it's too late.
"But it's painful to hear my Heavenly Physician tell me the truth about my heart!" That's because you don't stay in communication long enough for Him to heal you. You rush away before you give the Great Physician time to heal your heart wounded with sin. When the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin, say "Amen!" Confess He is telling the truth; "I acknowledge my transgressions. ... Blot out all my iniquities, ... do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation" (Psalm 51:3-12). Let Him do it! Don't resist Him!
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: April 24, 2001.
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