"Conviction"

"O LORD, rebuke me not in Thy wrath; neither chasten me in Thy hot displeasure." (Psalms 38:1) It is not fun to do, but it needs to be done: we need to spend some time before the Lord reflecting upon all that we have done to sin against Him: there needs to conviction before humility will happen. Sometimes, just saying, "Lord please forgive me for my sins", really does not bring out some of those sins that we like, just the ones that we feel bad for doing. But real conviction occurs when we realize what God thinks about those hidden sins; those sins that we do not included in our everyday confessions, because they are the sins that we like and we are not ready to turn away from them. God does not really want us to be afraid of Him, but He does what us to fear Him; unlike what some people might think, as they see God as holding lightening bolts in His hands, and preparing to throw them down upon us; that is not God's character, nor does it even come close to His patience that He has with us, (Thank You Father!). What I see within this verse, is that of a heart which feels conviction, and yet, that knows the mercy of God; not one that is afraid that God is about ready to smite him, but that he realizes he has sinned against the God that formed him and loves him, and he is eager to get things right with that God. Unlike what some earthly fathers might do, which is to just haul off and smack their children, our Heavenly Father is not like that, nor does He what to punish us for the sake of punishment; He punishes us to keep us under the shadow of His wings, and to show that He loves us. I see a heart that knows he deserves to be disciplined, yet, he also knows that God is merciful and kind; this is the kind of heart that David had, because he had a heart after God's heart, which judged rightly. I think if we try and understand what it means "to judge rightly", then there would be a whole lot less fighting among those within the church; we truly do fight over the stupidest things; it's almost as if we are looking for something to fight over; when what we really need to do, is to start looking into our own hearts... "Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again." (Luke 6:36-38)