Daily Devotion - November 14, 2025

Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. (Heb. 10:24)

When our youngest daughter was in high school, her life became an incredibly busy whirlwind of activities.  With my own hectic schedule, connecting with her was sometimes a challenge. 

But I wanted to connect with her, and so my wife suggested I get up early to fix my daughter breakfast the mornings that I was home. Nothing special — just a bowl of cereal.

On those mornings, as I joined my daughter, I would often consider what was my most important responsibility as the father of this young Christian woman. As I filled her cereal bowl, I realized what it was. My most important task was so to fill her heart with love for Christ.

Why? Because all responsible parents know that there are trials and temptations ahead for each child. But, if my child’s heart is full of love for Christ, she cannot be more safe or strong. 

That is not only true of my child but of every child of God. When our hearts are full of love for Christ, then we are never more spiritually safe or strong.

We stir up one another to love and good deeds by filling up hearts with love for the One who loved us and gave himself for us. Such encouragement is spiritual power!

Prayer: Father, help me to stir up loved ones to honor you by filling them up with love for Jesus. May a supreme love for him keep us all spiritually safe and strong by diminishing all other desires that would lead us from him. 

Daily Devotion - November 13, 2025

Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God. (Eph. 6:12-13)

Many attempts have been made to classify the demonic forces of darkness the apostle Paul identifies in Ephesians chapter 6. Most of the classifications are speculative, but there is no doubt that the Apostle Paul wants us to know that Satan works through evil forces that are present in this world — though not apparent to natural eyes.  

Our natural inclination when facing enemies we do not see is to assume that they are not present and pose no threat. Yet, when we put on the spiritual glasses that Scripture provides, we see that Satan’s forces constantly threaten our spiritual wellbeing.

Wicked leaders, lustful pursuits, unchallenged injustice, and blinding materialism are but examples of the weapons of those who intend our undoing. 

Forget the sham impressions of Halloween costumes and horror movie spooks. The Evil One appears as an angel of light, blinding us to the devastations of acceptable sins, distracting us from his destruction with promises of painless pleasures. 

The Bible reminds us that we are to be on guard, equipping ourselves with the armor God graciously provides to those otherwise no match for demonic powers and pervasive deceits. Apart from Christ, we are helpless against evil; with Christ, the demons flee.

Prayer: Father, help me not to be distracted or deluded by evil. May your spiritual armor protect me from spiritual foes as I depend upon Christ’s strength rather than my own! Open my eyes to real spiritual dangers and a stronger Savior.

Daily Devotion - November 12, 2025

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4)

Understanding that God’s primary goal for allowing the trials we face is our spiritual transformation helps to explain why God delays his response to some requests. Though we may be interested in a change of circumstances, God is more interested in changing us!

When we want a quick solution, God may be wanting us to grow in patience! When we want a troublesome co-worker removed, God may desire a greater understanding of his heart in them – and us. We always want closure for all our problems, but God wants us to learn to trust him in everything!

God never hesitates because he is incapable or unwilling to bless. As Richard Trench once wrote, “Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance; it is laying hold of his highest willingness.” What is he most willing to do? Make us reflect ever more the heart, the hope, and the eternal joy of Jesus.

As another wrote long ago: “God is perfect love and perfect wisdom. We do not pray in order to change his will, but in order to bring our will in harmony with his.” 

Prayer: Lord, help me to pray for your will more than mine, so that whether you change my circumstances or me, I will know and reflect more of my Savior. May confidence in your perfect grace for me grant your perfect peace to me.

Daily Devotion - November 11, 2025

Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:34-36)

I have lived in the Land of Lincoln, a region in Illinois where legends and facts about the 16th president are so intertwined that it’s sometimes difficult to determine all that’s true. But the tales of his life consistently reflect the principles he lived by.

One account is that he collected all the savings of his meager income as a young lawyer to cast the highest bid at a slave auction. After purchasing the slave, he immediately set her free and told her she could go wherever she wished. She replied to him, “I wish to go with you!”

Such loyalty naturally results from gratitude for being freed from slavery. So, when we have been supernaturally released from slavery to sin by the Son of God, our hearts are freed to give even greater loyalty to Him.

Biblical gratitude does not attempt to repay the debt for grace our meager efforts could never offset, but responds in grateful loyalty, going with Jesus wherever desires to do whatever he requires!

Prayer: Lord, thank you for removing my chains and setting me free in Christ. Now that I am no longer a slave, fill me with such gratitude for my freedom that my heart is bound to you in loyalty and love!

Daily Devotion - November 10, 2025

Let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. (Eph. 5:33)

Proverbs 31 describes a godly woman as one who brings honor and blessing to her husband. But a husband is not the only one who benefits from the respect of a godly wife? She benefits as well!  

No woman wants to be married to a man that she does not respect. So, the respect a wife offers her husband does not only benefit him. It provides the deep levels of marital fulfillment that her heart yearns for. The more a wife treasures her husband, the more satisfying and precious she will find their union.

Of course, this instruction seems unfair when a husband seems unworthy of respect – and one apostle even tell wives to “reverence” their husbands. None are worthy of that. So how do we think about these instructions?

The simple answer is a willingness to respect others is more often a product of what is in our hearts than what is in their lives. Everyone has flaws that we cannot respect, and everyone has features we can choose to respect. From Scripture we learn that the more we respect the features we can, the less we see the flaws we cannot.  

Yes, it’s hard. But the grace God extends to you is the grace available to you to love another as you have been loved. Fulfilling marriages are built on mutual respect from mutual sinners. You have to respect the spouse you married to be married to a spouse you respect. 

Prayer: Lord, thank you for my spouse! Help me to learn from your grace toward me so that I will love my spouse as you have loved me, and will respect as I wish to be respected. 

Daily Devotion - November 7, 2025

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (1 Pet. 1:8-9)

Pro basketball star, Jeremy Lin, was having a bad year. In the midst of a terrible slump, he wrote on his blog, “I am in the fight of my life for joy … Only when I focus on who God is … and how much He loves me, am I able to live with joy and freedom.”

How could he say this? Because he put on his gospel glasses. While he was reading sports headlines of criticism, he was also considering the salvation that would remain long after critics were gone. He used the absence of the world’s acclaim to focus on the eternity of God’s love. 

The same can be true for us! No matter what we’re presently facing, when we focus on the grace of God that has no limit in amount or duration then we’re able to live with continuing joy. Such joy is true freedom from voices of criticism from the world or from within.

Prayer: Father, when the outcomes of my life seems joyless, please help me to focus on the outcome of my faith, the salvation of my soul and eternity with you.

Daily Devotion - November 6, 2025

I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. (1 Tim. 1:16)

If God shows mercy to people who have messed up as badly as the Apostle Paul (and David, and Abraham, and Gideon, and Peter, and the whole host of Biblical “heros”) then, there is hope of for us – even when there are messes in our background, too. 

One of the leaders of our church, was shattered by a series of bad decisions that destroyed his income, his adult children’s security, his community esteem, and ultimately his health. As he left church one day, he paused at the door with weary and watery eyes to say, “Pastor, now I’m just a zero.”

Much of the man’s status had been reduced to nothing in the world’s eyes, but our church was also watching. As this faithful man responded to his trials without bitterness, his children awoke from the nominal faith of their former affluence. Our church leadership also became attentive to his counsel when economic hardship rocked our community. 

Families fractured by loss were healed by the experienced care of this man and his loving wife. The “zero” became such a hero of God’s grace that this pastor realizes he would not have been prepared for his own trials, or perhaps have remained in ministry, without the grace displayed in one who thought so little of himself. 

Failure is never the final chapter of lives turned to hope by a greater grace! God will patiently work his grace for eternal purposes. Wait patiently for him, trusting Jesus until his perfect will is done.

Prayer: Father, thank you for Christ’s patience with me. Please give me patience for his perfect will to be done, trusting the love that sent him will rescue me and use me for eternity.

Daily Devotion - November 5, 2025

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. (Eph. 3:16-17 NIV)

The Apostle Paul’s example encourages us to pray for the Holy Spirit to strengthen others. When others are strengthened by the Spirit through our prayers, our own hearts are encouraged and we become more aware of the power of prayer to build the community of faith that supports us. 

I have stood in pulpits with hopeful and supportive faces waiting to be fed with the Word of God. I have also stood facing suspicious and angry faces unwilling to hear anything I would say. 

I know that God’s Word can work in both, but I treasure the sense of soaring power that comes from evidence of supportive prayer for me from the congregation; and I know the sense of power being sapped from me by lack of support.

These differences remind me of Jesus’ lack of miracles due to the lack of faith from his hometown (Mark 6:5-6). Advancing God’s work is not just about praying for personal effectiveness, but praying for those about us – that God’s Spirit would strengthen them for his work and that his Son would indwell their hearts.

 Such a shared spirit fuels the power of the church to shine God’s heart and to do his will. So, today, take a moment to pray that God’s Spirit would supply the strength of faith for those about you!

Prayer: Father, today graciously supply me with the desire to pray that others would be strengthened by the Spirit and indwelt by Christ so that we all might be united in your service.

Daily Devotion - November 4, 2025

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matt. 6:19-21)

It’s almost a human reflex to think that greater obedience to God guarantees that we will have a problem-free family, material comforts, and a successful career. But that’s clearly not the case for many persecuted or impoverished believers throughout history or across our present world.

Our reflex mistake is trying to assess God’s faithfulness by earthly measures rather than eternal blessings. Not all Christians will have what the world most treasures, because worldly things are not what God most treasures.

The blessings of living for Christ will always include being able to look in the mirror without shame, having spiritual peace in a troubled world, and absolute confidence that God is working all things for the eternal good of those who love him. 

Righteousness, peace, and eternal joy are the blessings God grants his people that the world cannot grant nor take away. Be encouraged today – even if it’s a tough day – knowing that you can always trust in the perfect plan and gracious provision of your eternal God!

Prayer: Lord, please help me not to assess your faithfulness by earthly measures. Rather teach me the certainty, beauty, and eternity of your spiritual blessings that the world can neither give nor take away.

Daily Devotion - November 3, 2025

Christ himself gave some to be the apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up. (Eph. 4:11-12 NKJ and NIV)

My sons are best buddies, even though they are very different personalities. One is a deliberate thinker; the other an impulsive adventurer. 

Their distinctive personalities came out when we built a backyard swing set with a tall slide. One of my sons went to the slide, stood aside to measure its height, and then climbed carefully up the steps to get the best angle of descent to the adjoining sandpile. 

The other son donned his roller skates and leaped to the top of the slide to achieve maximum velocity! 

 Without one of our sons, life would have been a lot more dangerous; without the other life would have been a lot less exciting. Without one, there would be fewer Ph.D. degrees in our house; without the other, there would be fewer mountaintops in our lives. 

These two men remain best friends and, when they are working together, our family experiences are the absolute best!  

That’s what our Lord intends for the family of God, also. He provides unique personalities, using our diversity for experiencing and sharing the gospel in ways we could not as individuals. 

The Apostle Paul writes, “To each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it” (Eph 4:7). Embracing this wisdom makes the body of Christ the amazing instrument of grace God intends.  

Prayer: Jesus, help me to discover the gifts you have given me and to appreciate those you have given others, as you build up the body of Christ for the full reach of the gospel.

Daily Devotion - October 31, 2025

Now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith — more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire — may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1 Pet. 1:6-7)

Often, we experience Jesus more intimately during times of trial. Though no one should desire such seasons of difficulty, Scripture describes the beauty that comes of emerging from them by faith. 

The Apostle Peter’s words remind me of the Japanese art of mending broken pottery with melted gold. Kintsugi pottery is renowned as “more beautiful for having been broken.” 

As much as I don’t want to be broken, I am thankful for the example of how something damaged can be made more beautiful than the original. A wise preacher once said, “It is unlikely that God can use anyone for great purposes, until that person has been broken by trials.” 

When I’ve been bruised, battered, and broken, I am reminded that Jesus helped me through those difficulties, and he can do the same for others. If I never had to turn to him or ask his healing, then how would I or others know his grace. 

When we reflect the beauty of Christ that comes from our mended brokenness, the world sees more of God’s grace and so do we. 

Prayer: Heavenly Father, when I’m tested by fiery trials, may you refine me like gold, so that I can glorify you and shine the beauty of the Savior who mends me.

Daily Devotion - October 30, 2025

Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. (Eph. 6:14-15)

My father-in-law’s unit was assigned to face down a line of tanks barreling toward Allied troops at the Battle of the Bulge during World War II. The weapons in his unit were totally inadequate for the task. He later said, “Those tanks cut through us like we were paper.”

I cannot imagine the experience of those men, trying to stand against such an onslaught as the ground beneath them shook and death for many approached.  

The Apostle Paul’s imagery puts us into a setting of similar spiritual warfare. We are forced to picture ourselves standing before powerful evil. We are up against the powers of overwhelming wickedness that cause our world and our hearts to shake. But then God speaks: Stand firm. 

Our doubts and fears, driven by honest assessment of our inability cause us to cry out, “How can I possibly stand against this?” Then our God replies, “You have my armor. Evil will not prevail over you. Stand firm.”

The Bible never promises an immediate end to all your trials, but God promises to equip you with all that is necessary for your spiritual victory. Believe him. In Christ you can. So, stand firm!

Prayer: Lord, enable me to stand firm in the realities of spiritual warfare, putting on your armor and trusting your grace to provide all that is necessary for Christ’s victory.

Daily Devotion - October 29, 2025

I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 8:38-39)

God knows our assurance of his love can be shaken.  So, in one of the most sophisticated New Testament books, God has the Apostle Paul pause and return to simple themes at the heart of the gospel: Jesus’ love will not let us go.

The assurance comes in such a way that you can almost hear God whisper to Paul, “Now Paul, a lot of these doctrinal truths can be rather difficult for my people to grasp. So, lest they get discouraged, remind them Jesus loves them, and nothing can change that.” 

So, Paul writes in Romans that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus – not sin, not circumstances, not spiritual opposition.  If you have trusted Jesus to be your Savior, then you are his on this day and every day to come!

Such assurance of his strong hold on us, is meant to make our witness strong for him. If he will not let us go, then why would we ever let him down? Neither fear nor doubt nor guilt should drive us away from following him. We come to him, hold to him, and return to him because he will not let us go. 

Prayer: Lord, it is difficult for me to realize that nothing can separate me from your love. Today, renew my assurance of your hold on me so that I will cling to you and will return to your arms no matter how great the distance I have created.

Daily Devotion - October 28, 2025

Love is patient and kind …. It does not insist on its own way…. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. (I Cor. 13:4-6)

Early in our marriage, my wife, Kathy, and I agreed not to belittle one another in public, even it was a common way our friends joked. Our agreement came after noticing how often these friends would use the protection of a public gathering to make embarrassing comments about a spouse’s habits, flaws, or foibles. 

Now don’t get me wrong, Kathy and I enjoy teasing one another, but we have learned that trying to correct or manipulate one another through public embarrassment, even in jest, isn’t helpful. Demeaning another for the sake of getting a laugh or gaining control is not a path to marital health.

Scripture is clear that we’re to exercise love and mutual respect toward our spouses. Our marriages should be places of mutual support – where we are secure enough to enjoy a tease and loving enough not to use it to mask manipulation.  

Mutual respect builds marriages. Teasing can make them fun. But public embarrassment, where the one teased cannot respond or defend without further embarrassment, is unfair. 

God’s grace flows through marriages where love does not seek its own way, does not rejoice in another’s discomfort, and teases to unite in fun not to embarrass anyone.  

Prayer: Father, help me to express love and honor in the way I speak to and about my spouse. Help me to build up another in love, as you knit us together by your grace. 

Daily Devotion - October 27, 2025

I will make them and the places all around my hill a blessing, and I will send down the showers in their season; they shall be showers of blessing. (Ezek. 34:26)

Have you ever considered how strange it is that you can keep your balance in the shower when shampooing your hair? Think about it. There you are with eyes closed, standing without support, your hands flailing through your hair while you shake your head like a rock star.  Yet, despite the frenzied gyrations, you keep your balance. What keeps you from falling?

The water from the shower nozzle tapping you on the shoulder keeps you oriented.  Similarly, the blessings of God, gently shower over our lives keeps us spiritually oriented and in balance for his calling. 

When we are experiencing trials, there is never total absence of blessings. So, we praise God for the good we can see, despite the grace we cannot yet see. 

It may be good to remember the example of Bible commentator Matthew Henry. A man once stole his wallet. Henry’s response: “I am thankful he never robbed me before; that he took my wallet and not my life; although he took all I had, it was not much; and, I am glad that it was I who was robbed and not I who did the robbing.” 

Awareness of the constant stream of grace that flows over us keeps us steady for God’s service.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, you have poured down showers of blessing in my life. May the good I can see prepare me for the grace I cannot yet see as you orient me toward your purposes. 

Daily Devotion - October 24, 2025

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (1 John 4:10-11)

I think it’s fair to say that many people honor God out of mere duty — or because they dread his anger. How many times have you heard someone say they did something wrong, and now they’re waiting for the proverbial bolt of lightning to strike? 

Yet, God wants the prime motivation of his children to be very different! That’s why his greatest commandment is for you to love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, and mind (Matt. 22:37-8). 

That love relationship changes everything in our Christian walk. God’s love assures us that his rules are for our benefit, not the arbitrary commands of an eternal killjoy. Loving God’s makes our service to him joy, rather than a burden or a bribe.  

When we truly understand God’s heart of grace through the revelation of Jesus Christ, we’re drawn into a relationship with him that’s filled with love, calling us to a life that pleases and glorifies God.

That calling causes us to obey God not out of fearful dread or slavish fear, but out of a childlike love and willing heart. Our greatest delight is delighting him. The heart of gratitude (rather than earthly gain or divine avoidance) is the supreme motivation and power of those who grasp how great is God’s love. 

What communicates that love? Jesus. As we gaze upon his cross and marvel at his provision for sinners like us, we live to love him. That was the plan from the beginning. So live to love him, and love living for him!

Prayer: Father, thank you for loving me so much that you sent your Son as a “propitiation” to pay the penalty for my sins. May I respond to your love by loving to live for you.

Daily Devotion - October 23, 2025

Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. (2 Kings 6:17)

When our children were small, we sometimes worried about their safety on the stairs of our home. The long staircase offered no landing to ease the danger of its steep slope. But the more we worried, the more the kids seemed attracted to the stairs – our youngest daughter especially.

Normally, we would scold the toddler for heading up the stairs alone, but one time, she was trying so hard that I didn’t have the heart to stop her. Instead, I followed close behind – with my hands ready to catch her. 

When she reached the top, she was so proud of her accomplishment that she raised her hands in triumph. If she had been a rooster, she would have crowed. 

She did not realize that her success and safety were secured by hands other than her own. Likewise, as much as we may think our accomplishments are all our doing, God is actually holding us in his hands, and directing the hosts of heaven to keep us secure for his purposes.

Prayer: Father, when my trials or my pride threaten to overwhelm my spirit, help me to remember the heavenly hosts that guard my soul and your hands that enable every accomplishment. 

Daily Devotion - October 22, 2025

You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. . . But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. (Eph. 2:1, 4-5)

Long ago, there lived a king who looked out from his palace window to see his young child gathering flowers for a royal bouquet. But the child did not only gather flowers. Because he was a child, he collected weeds as well.

To help his laboring child, the king tasked his eldest son with a mission: to go and remove the weeds from his younger sibling’s bouquet and replace them with flowers gathered from the king’s own garden. 

The older son did just as his father instructed.  Soon the beaming, younger child approached his father’s throne to present the beautiful bouquet to the king. “Here, my father,” he said, “are the flowers I have prepared for you.”

Only later would the younger child understand that his gift had been made acceptable by the gracious provision of his father who sent the older brother to make them right. In a similar way, our Heavenly Father provided Christ (our elder brother) to take all our works and weeds and turn them into acceptable gifts for God by his gracious provision!

Prayer: Father, thank you for making the bouquets of my works acceptable to you by the work of Jesus – not just at the end of my life, but every day of my life. May his gracious provision for my flawed flowers make me all the more desirous of bringing more to glorify you this day and every day.

Daily Devotion - October 21, 2025

You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Pet. 2:5)

When construction began on a new development in our community, the builder placed a large fence around the property.  He wouldn’t allow anything inside the gate except what would advance the building of those new homes.

In a similar way, God puts a construction fence around our lives and allows nothing to enter except what will develop us more into the likeness of Jesus.

This fence of God’s care is one of the Christian’s greatest comforts. It assures us that nothing enters our lives except that which is for our ultimate good. The fence of God’s care doesn’t signal that everything will be easy or finished all at once, but it does mean that whatever we encounter inside the fence will have a purpose in the plan of the Architect.

So, remember, Christians are not perfect, but under construction. We have been fenced about with God’s love so that we can be built up according to his perfect plan, and nothing enters our lives except what will be used to make us more like Christ in holiness and service to God!

Prayer: Lord, whatever I face today, help me to remember that it would not have come if it did not have a purpose in your design for my life. Help me to respond with the faith that nothing can enter my life that does not help me better to understand and reflect my Savior.

Daily Devotion - October 21, 2025

You felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret. (2 Cor. 7:9-10)

When we grieve for our wrongdoing, we are experiencing the conviction that that our sins have hurt the heart of God. No one should want to feel such pain, but God uses it to assure us of the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives. 

If the Holy Spirit were not in our hearts, then we would not grieve that we have aggrieved our God. The heart not indwelt by the Holy Spirit is hardened against God and cannot feel true conviction for sin. 

It is certainly possible to feel the guilt of having been caught, or the shame of failing loved ones, without being a true Christian. However, it is impossible to experience sorrow for grieving our Heavenly Father without believing that our sins have betrayed One who loves us. Such conviction is entirely and only by the work of the Holy Spirit. 

So, strange as it may sound, godly grief is confirmation of God in our hearts. We need not despair that our sin has forever separated us from God when our godly sorrow is the absolute proof of his continuing presence. 

The conviction that confirms God is still with us gives us fresh incentive to love and serve him. In fact, the Spirit uses your godly sorrow to grant confidence that he has not rejected you in order to encourage your prayers of repentance. 

Conviction of sin is the assurance of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling that makes us willing to confess sin and wanting to please him again!

Prayer: Father, thank you for the confirming work of the Holy Spirit! May he convict my conscience to assure me that I am yours and to lead me to the blessings of repentance.