The Fire Alarm

“But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. When He comes, He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in Me.”—John 16:7-9

Some years ago, we lived in a house with a very sensitive fire alarm. Whenever we lit the fireplace the fire alarm would go off. It became so bad and happened so often that eventually we simply began ignoring it.

Late one evening, while watching television, I lit the fireplace. The fire alarm went off as usual and as usual I opened up the door in order to let the smoke from small fire air out, and let some outside air in, thus silencing the alarm. But this time, when I opened the door, the alarm didn’t stop. I did everything I could to get it to stop and nothing worked. Finally, in desperation and not wanting my children to wake up, I disconnected it. There was silence, but only for a moment. The fire alarm was on a circuit with four of five others and the alarm in the next bedroom went off. Still in desperation, I disconnected that one, thus silencing the house. Or so I thought. The alarm went off again, but I was confused. There was no smoke in the room, the two alarms that normally set everything else off had been disconnected, but no sooner had I disconnected it, the alarm in another one of the bedrooms went off. I dashed to the bedroom in order to silence that alarm, only to find smoke coming out of the basement door. I opened the door and saw a room gradually filling with smoke. I ran down stairs, and saw that the fire was coming from the wall. The fireplace had a crack in it and some ashes had dripped down into the pit. I put out the small fire and everything was safe. I called the fire department in order to make sure that there wasn’t something more severe going on and they made sure everything and everyone was safe and secure.

We may try to silence the Holy Spirit’s alert to our conscience. We might try to deafen it, remove it, and do anything to silence it, but the Holy Spirit will not quit. He will keep alerting us to sin’s destructive force. What may seem annoying is in actuality our salvation. Without the alarm, my family may have been killed. Without the Holy Spirit’s alarm to your life, you may spend eternity apart from God if you fail to listen. So, listen to when the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin, dear one! Do not try to shut off the alarm to the sin in your life! Listen to what He says and repent! Amen.