…This is the only place I can begin from. When something ugly rears its head, and I begin to struggle, I cannot start fighting against it from a place of shame, or fear, or condemnation. Those things only give strength to the darkness. Real conviction does not look like that. Real conviction does not say, “If you were really a child of God, then this would not be happening to you.” It should be obvious to us that those kinds of words come only from the enemy. Somehow we forget, though.

Real conviction says things like, “My child, I love you! Come up higher! Come away with me, away from this noise, for the parts of you that resist Me are but dust; they are not the real you anymore, and that was never who I created you to be. Come with me now, today, and harden not your heart…pick up your instrument (which is your very self) and make music to me with everything you’ve got! That’s how we do battle against the darkness in this family.” Real conviction bids me remember that the only way I ever got free from anything in the first place was by basking in the love of a merciful God. Real conviction woos me back to that place.