For Those Seeking to "Have A Clear Conscience" (2)
Confession - Purging/Cleansing of Our Conscience
As a very young boy, I remember my mother buying cleaning supplies from a door-to-door salesman who represented the Fuller Brush Co. Then as years passed, the Watkins Dealer came regularly, followed by the Amway Dealer. My mom always bought plenty, so we always had an abundant supply on hand. Malachi 3:2 described God's cleansing us like this "For he is like arefiner's fire and like fullers' soap". Of course, he was referring to our inward, spiritual conscience. It doesn't take long living on this sin-soaked earth for a child to develop a stained conscience. As we grow, mature and strengthen in the physical realm, our hearts (conscience) becomes, without divine intervention, wounded, then defiled and ultimately seared. Our conscience can be weakened, dulled, dimmed,and polluted by the sin that we tolerate in our lives. Seared is a medical term referring to cauterized, the allowing of your conscience to become desensitized. As one continues to sin and turn away from God, you become still more apathetic about moral and spiritual things. Repeated sinning hardens the conscience so that it becomes more insensitive and eventually may stop giving warning signals about wrongdoing. Read Titus 1:15 and I Timothy 4:2.
The Scriptures teach a very important part of cleansing, renewing and keeping a clear conscience - confession of sin. Hebrews 9:14 " How much more, then, will the blood of Christ ...cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God". 1 John 1:9 says "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness". Dietrich Bonhoeffer said "He who is alone with his sin is utterly alone".And real spiritual maturity, not just in the life of a believer, but in the life of a community, is not a church that is without sin but it is a church that is FREE FROM SECRETS, a church unafraid to confess.
Scripture: James 5:16 "Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another,that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working".
Meditate: Learning to listen, confess and obey will transform your relationship with Jesus. It could save your marriage, family and friends, church environment, mental and physical health, finances, diet, sleep -- all facets of life.
