This is part of my year-long series exploring human-centered alternatives to the spiritual promises in Oswald Chambers’ classic devotional My Utmost for His Highest. Today’s entry, “The Concentration of Personal Sin”, promises that being in God’s presence creates specific conviction about concentrated sin, claiming the Spirit will point out definite sins and lead to deeper conviction, with God then sending “cleansing fire” to purify the precise location of sin.
Here’s what seeking divine conviction about concentrated sin actually delivered:
“When you’re truly in God’s presence, you’ll experience specific conviction about particular sins,” the spiritual formation leader explained confidently. “The Spirit will point out definite areas where sin is concentrated, then God will send cleansing fire to purify you. This is how spiritual growth happens—through precise divine conviction and purification.”
Jennifer desperately wanted this supernatural experience of conviction and cleansing. During extended prayer sessions and retreats, she searched for the specific sin God was supposedly revealing. When troubled by particular thoughts or behaviors, she interpreted this as the Spirit pointing out concentrated sin requiring divine purification.
She confessed pride, selfishness, doubt, countless other potential sins, waiting for God’s cleansing fire to purify the exact areas of spiritual contamination. Each confession felt like progress toward the deeper conviction that would reveal “the great disposition of sin” underneath her surface failures.
But the promised divine purification was a psychological trap.
Instead of experiencing God’s cleansing fire, Jennifer developed obsessive spiritual scrupulosity. She became hypervigilant about potential sins, constantly analyzing her motives and behaviors for evidence of concentrated spiritual corruption. The pursuit of specific divine conviction created crushing anxiety rather than spiritual peace.
Meanwhile, her friend Carlos approached personal growth with zero expectation of supernatural conviction. When Carlos struggled with anger management and relationship patterns, he didn’t seek divine revelation about concentrated sin. He worked with a counselor to identify specific behavioral triggers and develop healthier responses through cognitive-behavioral techniques.
Carlos didn’t expect divine purification through cleansing fire. He used practical strategies—mindfulness training, communication skills practice, regular therapy sessions—to address problematic patterns. His improvement came through consistent human effort and professional guidance, not divine intervention.
When Jennifer finally sought therapy for her spiritual anxiety, her counselor helped her understand that obsessive self-examination for sin was creating psychological distress rather than spiritual growth.
Where was the Spirit’s precise conviction about concentrated sin? Where was God’s cleansing fire that was supposed to purify specific areas of spiritual contamination?
The “concentrated sin” she’d been desperately seeking was actually healthy human emotions and normal psychological processes that didn’t require divine purification. Her hypervigilance about spiritual corruption was textbook religious scrupulosity—a form of OCD, not spiritual sensitivity.
Jennifer’s breakthrough came when she stopped waiting for God to reveal and cleanse specific sins and started addressing her actual mental health needs through evidence-based treatment. The peace she’d sought through divine conviction came through learning to accept herself as an imperfect but worthy human being.
The “cleansing fire” that actually helped wasn’t supernatural purification but therapeutic techniques that addressed her scrupulosity and anxiety. The precision she’d expected from divine conviction came through professional assessment and treatment, not spiritual experience.
The silence where God’s specific conviction was supposed to manifest revealed the truth: there was no Spirit pointing out concentrated sin. Only human psychology that could be understood and treated through professional care, not divine purification.
Reflection Question: When has professional therapy been more effective than seeking divine conviction for addressing specific behavioral or emotional patterns?
This story is part of my upcoming book “The Undevoted: Daily Departures from Divine Dependence,” which offers 365 human-centered alternatives to the spiritual certainties in Chambers’ devotional. Each day explores how reason, community, and human resilience can address life’s challenges without requiring divine intervention.
God or Delusion? 