God put a conscience in the soul of every human being ever
born. Our human conscience functions from an inherent, instinctive
consciousness of the will of God for our life. We can suppress our conscience,
however, and walk away from His will. We turn a blind eye to the evidence of
God in creation, which is clearly seen and understood by all, so that no one is
without excuse when they reject God (Romans 1:18-20).
In our youth, our conscience is very active; however, it
gets seared throughout our lifetime (1 Timothy 4:2). As
adults, we may go through some self-help programs, but we eventually revert to
our old, carnal ways. True change only comes when we surrender our life to
Jesus Christ. Even if we do surrender to His call on our life,
condemnation from past failings, and feelings of insecurity and inadequacy
about the future, drive our conscience to perform in our human efforts to win
God’s favor.
Depending on our choices, our conscience either commends or
condemns us. When we continually avoid compliance with God’s truth, we sear our
conscience and have no moral compass to guide our thoughts, words and deeds (1 Timothy
4:2). When we compare our behavior with that of someone in the world, we may
think we are doing fine; but the world is not our standard. Jesus Christ is our
measure, which means that no matter how well we behave, we often miss the mark
of His perfection and end up in sin.
Sometimes, Satan makes us feel guilty, even if we are not
guilty of sin, in order to debilitate us and prevent God’s Holy Spirit from
using us as He desires. God’s conviction brings no condemnation with it, but
always shows us a way to escape the temptation in front of us (1
Corinthians 10:13). Even if we do wrong, we can always repent of that
sin and apologize to those whom we offended. Christ died to make us a new
creation for His service (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Our conscience cautions us when we violate Biblical
standards. It agrees with what our heart instinctively knows about God’s
expectations. Yet, many people still reject God’s truth (Romans
2:14-15). It is only as we resist Satan’s lies and submit to God’s
Spirit and His Word, that we can renew our mind. We realign it with the mind of
Christ (James 4:7; Ephesians 4:23; Romans 12:2). Then, the
Holy Spirit replaces our carnal nature with the divine nature of Christ (2 Peter
1:4) and the fruit of God’s Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).
Prayer:
Father God, thank You for setting us free from the
manipulation of false guilt and freeing our conscience from the bondage of
Satan’s lies. You forgave our sin and washed us as white as snow (Colossians
2:13; Psalm 51:7; Isaiah 1:18). We accept Your forgiveness, we forgive our self and
we live to bring You glory with all of our thoughts, words and deeds. We rest
from the tyranny of our human efforts (Hebrews 4:10). As Born
Again Believers, we operate in faith in the sanctifying activity of Christ and
Your Spirit in our life (Colossians 2:6).
Thought for the Day:
Repentance clears our conscience by changing our mind and
our actions. – 1 Corinthians 3:5; 2 Corinthians 4:7