Heard From Your Conscience Lately?

“Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, with integrity and godly sincerity.” – 2 Corinthians 1:12

God has supernaturally and strategically placed an early warning system inside you. It’s called … your conscience.

 

Warren Wiersbe describes it this way: “Conscience is that inner faculty that … approves when we do right, but accuses when we do wrong…. It is the window that lets in the light; and if the window gets dirty because we disobey, then the light becomes dimmer and dimmer (see Matt. 6:22-23; Rom. 2:14-16).”

 

You see, your conscience can change over time. It can become LESS sensitive or MORE sensitive to the light of God’s moral truth – depending, in part, on whether you listen to it or ignore it. Your conscience is vital, but it’s not the final judge of truth or sin – God is. Therefore, it’s vital to wash your conscience every day with the truth from God’s Word. The more you expose your conscience to God’s pure Word and pay attention to it, the more useful your conscience will be.

 

Halfway through the first chapter of 2 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul is defending his apostleship against false teachers. And in verses 12-14, Paul makes it clear that his conscience testifies to three things: his conduct is sincere, his words are trustworthy, and his motives are pure.

 

Can you say the same for yourself? Or could the window of your conscience use some scrubbing? To keep your conscience in good working order, here are 3 action points:

 

Action Point #1: To keep your conscience clear and properly calibrated, spend time every day praying and studying God’s Word. Your conscience is no replacement for the Word of God or for the Holy Spirit living inside you. But make no mistake: Your conscience IS a beautiful and necessary gift from God. So, cleanse it by studying God’s Word and praying every day. The psalmist writes in Psalm 119:11: “I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You.”

 

Action Point #2: Pay attention to your conscience, because God uses it to keep both your conduct and your words in check. Evil forces at work in our culture will try to convince you that ignoring your conscience is no big deal. Whatever you’ve been doing that you know you shouldn’t be doing—whether it’s viewing porn, drinking too much or blowing through stop signs — start paying more attention to your conscience. It might be in bad shape from lack of use, but God can give you a new conscience if you’ll ask Him.

 

Action Point #3: Knowing that God will judge the motives of your heart, do a motive check today. As Christians, many of us do good things for the wrong reasons. Sometimes we do good things because it makes us feel good and it makes us look good. But in 2 Corinthians 5:14, Paul writes, “Christ’s love compels us.” Can the same be said about you? Check your motives today.

 

If you allow the Word of God to cleanse your conscience and calibrate it to God’s perfect truth, it will speak to you more than ever. And when your conscience starts testifying … listen.

 

Dane Davis is the pastor of Impact Christian Church in Victorville. Join us at Impact for Sunday services at 9am: at 17746 George Blvd., or at 9 a.m. on Facebook Live or YouTube. For more information, visit www.GreaterImpact.cc.