This Day in History: 0000-08-31

August 31 – 1 Timothy 1:19

Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked.

Do we give the importance of a clear conscience appropriate weight? This warning from 1 Timothy helps shed some light on its gravity.

Friends, the Spirit of the Living God has made His home in our hearts. He lives there. He has become a part of who we are, and His presence is not one of silence! He pricks our conscience in so many ways. Whether it be a gentle sense of discomfort as we’re participating in something we know does not please Him, or a screaming disquiet that warns us of great danger, we are given the choice to heed those warnings or press forward in disobedience. But, oh the danger when we do!

When we deliberately violate our conscience, something happens. We numb it just a little. We silence the Holy Spirit and it becomes a little bit easier to do it again the next time, and then the next time is even more so, and so on until we find ourselves no longer able to hear its leading or feel its prick. We find ourselves isolated from the presence of God because we’ve locked His Spirit into a sealed and soundproof room in our hearts.

From there, our faith becomes meaningless. It is no longer a driving force in our lives, but simply a tag we stick onto the end of our identity. We begin to define it instead of it defining us. It really doesn’t take long for us to find we don’t even know what we believe anymore, and God becomes some intangible idea rather than the singular source of our everything!

So let’s cling to our faith! I can’t speak for you, but I don’t want to be far from God. I’ve been there, and it is miserable. I want the Holy Spirit to drive everything I do. I want His voice to be loud and unmistakable. I want to be the dearly loved daughter who can be counted on to obey. Every time!

So, let’s resolve to listen carefully. Let’s obey faithfully, but when we mess up let’s be quick to confess and repent! Let’s keep our consciences clear before God so that our faith will never be shipwrecked!