Years ago I read through a children’s series called Eragon. Eragon was going to face a strong and evil sorcerer named Galbatorix who had taken over the land through murder and violence. Finally, after battle upon battle to get to him, Eragon was able to confront Galbatorix deep within his lair. On the brink of defeat, Eragon uttered a single phrase in order to try and overcome him. It was the word “understand.” Galbatorix had lied to himself throughout the years, convincing himself that all the evil he had done was for the good of the whole. So when Eragon’s simple one word spell got through to him, he had to see himself for who he was and what he had done. He was overwhelmed with grief and he died over recognizing what he’d done.
This is not the purpose of why we show people their sins. We don’t want them to die of grief. We want them, instead, to find forgiveness in Jesus. We want them to find comfort in His love. We want them to find strength to live a new and holy life, to the glory of God’s name. Before that can happen, sometimes they need to be shown their sin so they can understand who they are or what they’re doing. It sometimes takes a great and bold battle of loving confrontation and persistence to reach through people’s defenses, but this is how God wants to work - through you. God give you the strength to be confrontational when you need to be. God give you the faith to let HIM take care of the results.