Turn On Your Conscience, Feel The Pain Of Your Guilt And Shame

Published on 6 October 2024 at 11:10

1 John 3:20 tells us "If our conscience condemns us, we know that God is greater than our conscience and that he knows everything."

We live in a world now where a healthy conscience, guilt and shame is being labeled as a bad and unhealthy thing for us humans.

We are erasing the truth and great importance of morality, of good and bad, of right and wrong as a standard guide for us when dealing with life and making choices that affect other people , ourselves and our relationship with God.

Society sees the idea of conscience as a bad thing, as judgmental, non-accepting, non-tolerant, discriminatory and legalistic.

We use our "being human" as an excuse for every sin we have committed. We are only human is what we say and so we brush off our wrongdoings and carry on with life.

Even our friends and family can encourage us to not feel guilty or bad when we do something wrong.

Instead of facing the truth that we have committed a sin, reflect on it, accept and allow the pain of guilt and shame as a result of our immoral actions so we can remember how awful it feels and so we will try to make better choices next time, we are quick to wash our hands and convince ourselves that it is OK, we are humans and being guilty about it does not help and we all make mistakes and we move on.

Do not get me wrong, I am not saying you live in guilt and shame all your life because that is the goal of the devil to keep you away from God.

This is not about staying guilty and shameful as a punishment but being a human being operating with morals, conscience and honoring the value of guilt and shame so we can make choices in life that honors God, blesses other people and enjoy the peace that comes with a clean conscience.

The verse in the Bible that describes a seared conscience is 1 Timothy 4:2, which says, "Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron".

The metaphor of a seared conscience describes a conscience that has been rendered insensitive, similar to the hide of an animal that has been branded with a hot iron.

"A person with a seared conscience is desensitized to moral pangs."

We are getting to the point where as a society we give excuses for every immoral and wrongdoings we do and in the process we are becoming desensitized to doing immoral actions.

Adultery, divorce, promiscuity, porn, gossiping, greed, selfishness, lying are some of the things that are becoming more common therefore becoming normalized and in the process we become desensitized from committing those actions and it is due to erasing the concept of having set of morals, operating on our conscience and accepting guilt and shame as our teacher and guide to help us avoid committing immoral and hurtful actions toward other people, ourselves and most importantly God.

Acts 24;16 tells us "This being so, I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men."

We need to pray to God to help us and give us the grace to operate on good conscience for we want to glorify and honor Him in all that we do.

Hebrews 13:18 says "Pray for us; for we are confident that we have a good conscience, in all things desiring to live honorably."

Our conscience allows us to have a deeper relationship with God. Sin and immorality creates guilt and shame and those feelings make us shy away from God and it does not make us feel comfortable and confident to face and to come to God.

Of course our sins have already been paid by the blood of Christ but God still commands us to do the right and moral thing and to not fall for Satan's temptations to commit sins.

Doing good bears good fruits and doing bad produces bad fruits.

Psalm 34:14 tells us "Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it"

Choosing good over evil, and peace over sin, is part of honoring God properly.

The verse also conveys that fear of the Lord affects what we say and do, and that making peace manifests a God-fearing attitude.

-Jennifer

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