Take Off The Coat Of Accusation

The feeling of accusation is not a stranger to us. At some point, when we make a mistake, hurt someone, fall into some sins or see no progress in our plans, we may feel accused within us, from others or from God. We may feel lack, judged, becoming a disappointment to others or just lousy altogether. However, let us not remain in accusations but keep moving forward with the promises and hope from Christ.

The destructiveness of accusations
Now, the truth is, we are often being accused in our hearts. The voices of accusations will tell us “how can you please God with your current state?”, “why are you of so little faith?”, “you are such a hypocrite”, “bad things are happening to you because God is not happy with you, He is disciplining you.” These voices from Satan can come in all sorts of shapes and forms to specifically prick at our problems and weaknesses, making us believe this statements of untruths and crippling our faith and heart to run for God. Let us not belittle the destructiveness of accusations. The moment we are attacked by accusations, our relationships with God, with ourselves and the people around us are starting to see cracks. A person that is accused will find it very hard to face God and in fact, they will have a tendency to escape, just as how Adam and Eve were like when they first sinned. At the same time, when we start to break away from a close relationship with God, men will start losing assurance and peace. We will fear consequences, punishments, and we will not have the conviction that God still loves and accepts us unconditionally. In other cases, people that feel accused may also hate themselves, how weak and incapable they feel about themselves and start to give in to thoughts of negativity. As this goes on, we will also find it hard to love the people around us because we can get more and more sensitive to how people might think about us, judge us and even cause many kinds of assumptions, overthinking and misunderstandings about another person’s intentions. That is why accusations also lead to defensiveness. One that is accused can sometimes accused others in order to feel better about themselves, thus leading to interpersonal issues. When we are entangled by all these thoughts and ideas bred by an accused heart, we will gradually get weaker and more fallen. So then, how can we remove this coat of accusation from our heart and mind?

How to remove the coat of accusation?

Clinging onto Jesus’ precious blood and truth
<Ephesians 6:11> tells us “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” This full armour consist of the belt of truth and the sword of the Holy Spirit, which is the word of God. It also includes the helmet of salvation, as said in Ephesians 6:14 and 17. Therefore, when accusations come, the first thing we have to do is to cover ourselves with Jesus’ salvational blood and truth. Even if what Satan has used to accused us are facts, but the blood of Jesus has already covered over that. Thus, Satan’s voice that tries to bring us down will not be able to convict us of our mistakes and weaknesses. If God does not convict us, no one can. <Romans 8:33-34> says, “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” When we cling on to the promises and salvational power of Christ, we will gradually loosen the grip of accusations within us.

Continually submit to God
Other than that, how can we remove accusations from our lives? We have to make every effort to continue obeying God’s will for us and serving Him. As we do so, accusations will decrease its power over us. Therefore, we have to surrender over and over again to the Lord. However, if we do not do so, instead of fighting against our feelings of accusations, we remain in lament, self pity and despair, our accusations will only grow within us. If a person does not receive answers or liberation when they are feeling accused, they may get into deeper sins or continue to be entrapped in the same issues. They may feel that they are already so weak, unable to do anything right, and let loose, giving up the heart to battle against the forces of darkness. But if we really want to transcend the accusations in us, we must at least have a soft and repentant heart, instead of a heart of stone that is cold to receive God’s healing. This is the first step of submission to God. Before we can abide by God’s commandments, we must first be able to admit our inabilities to fight this spiritual war and our need to get the strength and motivation only from God to go through our struggles. Even though our submission may not be perfect, but the amazing thing is, when we surrender to Him over and over again, to His truth and His guidance, we will have more and more assurance that God delights in us, His children. And eventually, the feelings of accusations will become diluted.

Dear brethren, we will be easily accused because our sinful nature and the works of Satan still exists. But let us not be crippled by the accusations that come at us, but trust in the power of Jesus’ salvational work on us. From there, we continue submitting to God and get into the blessed cycle of restoring our own precious identity and purpose of God’s children and vessels for this era.