Conviction or Condemnation

By Charleen Burghardt

Do you ever wake up with a gnawing in your stomach, feeling unworthy? Do you ever have a nebulous sense of disapproval that lingers?

Did you do something wrong? Nothing comes to mind. You say, “Why do I feel this way?”

It could be inner condemnation when we perceive ourselves as not good enough. It eats up, destroys confidence, and takes away joy, isolating us.

Destroys joy

My younger brother was an active, typical boy who loved to play hard. When he was eight, he scraped his knee, as most boys do. But the scrape did not heal. I can still see the sore on his knee that did not improve. No matter what topical treatment my mother used on the wound, it grew in redness and size—the sore festered.

Stumped and out of options, my mother took him to the doctor only to discover he had impetigo, a highly contagious bacterial skin infection needing antibiotics. Once the right medicine started, the inflammation healed within days, and his skin returned to normal.

Condemnation can be like impetigo, destroying our souls and festering. It is accompanied by guilt, blaming ourselves, shame, regret, and hopelessness.

We hear voices in our heads.

“I will never amount to anything.”
“I am not a good mother or not a good father.”
“I am such a failure.”

These messages land on us from the world, negative self-talk, or even voices from the enemy-accusations and lies. Whatever way we turn, we have piercing thoughts castigating us, punching us in the gut.

Messages in our head

Do you know if those messages are legitimate? It takes sorting through those thoughts and feelings to discern where they are from- from God or elsewhere.

Inner condemnation does not come from God; it is devoid of hope. It is like a vague loitering weight. A Bible teacher, Steve Brown, would say about condemnation, “It’s from the pit of hell and smells like smoke.”

Smells like Smoke

Distinguishing between conviction and inner condemnation is essential for our peace.

Conviction is an awareness by the Holy Spirit for a specific sin, something said, done, or thought that displeases God. We confess the wrong, acting on the conviction with repentance. God’s grace and mercy in Christ offer us forgiveness and remove guilt-pardon. God honors our prayer.

We stand right with God, which is freeing—new hope surfaces.

I am no longer condemned. The verse below is one that I remind myself of often.

So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death (Romans 8:1, 2 NLT).

In Christ, no condemnation

Although I ask for forgiveness, I may still have lingering feelings of guilt, dark and hard to shake off. My emotions can be unreliable.

The Difference

Inner condemnation points the finger at us and who we are, a negative judgment of us; it says we are terrible.

In contrast, conviction points the finger at a particular wrong thought, action, or word. Conviction is a flag to let us know we did something wrong.

Even if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts and knows all things (1 John 3:20).

I REMEMBER WHAT CHRIST HAS DONE FOR ME when my thoughts and sensations in my gut tell me I am not good enough or condemned. I remember the promise of Jesus, “But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from everything we’ve done wrong.” (1 John 1:9 CEB).

“Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us” (Romans 5:8 NLT).

God loves us and makes us worthy because of Christ.

We can leave the condemnation at the door.  Then, we start our day by putting one foot before the other.

Shut the door on condemnation

For someone with an overly sensitive conscience, distinguishing between condemnation and conviction has taken me time.

Here are some great Scripture tools for dealing with negative self-talk in a post by Deb Wilson; check out the link.

Please let me know what you think about this post.

Share with someone who needs hope.