فصل 26

CHAPTER 26

Develop a Tender Conscience

Your conscience is often called the compass of the soul. It works like an inward monitor, similar to an alarm. When you’re about to do something that is not beneficial or something that will get you into trouble, your conscience causes you to feel uneasy. Don’t ignore that warning. That’s your conscience helping you to know what is right and what is wrong. One of the best friends you can ever have is your own conscience.

We could avoid a great deal of trouble and heartache if we would maintain a more tender conscience. I hear people say all the time, “I know I shouldn’t do this, but—” Or “I know I shouldn’t say this, but—” Or “I know I shouldn’t buy this, but—” They know what they should do. The alarm is going off. They can feel that sense of disapproval, but they choose to disobey their own conscience. Someday they will look back and recognize how God tried to warn them again and again.

Don’t make the mistake of overriding your conscience. Respect it. Just as you respect your boss or someone else with authority over you, learn to treat your conscience in the same way. God will use your conscience to help lead you and keep you out of trouble. Perhaps you are in a conversation with your spouse and things are heating up. You can feel yourself getting aggravated, wanting to continue the argument more forcefully, when suddenly, that inner alarm goes off. Something down inside says, “Let it go. Drop it. Bite your tongue. Walk away. Keep the peace.” That’s your conscience trying to keep you out of trouble. That’s God trying to warn you. Too many times we ignore it and choose to do our own thing. We end up having a big argument and getting all upset, ruining the rest of the evening. It could have been avoided if we would have paid attention to what our conscience was trying to say to us.

Learn to be sensitive. Stop when your conscience says stop. Quit having to have the last word. Pay attention to what you’re feeling inside, and don’t override your own conscience.

I have found that the more obedient we are, the easier it becomes. Obedience breeds obedience. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true. Disobedience breeds more disobedience. Consequently, you can increase the sensitivity of your conscience or you can decrease it. Every time you obey, your conscience becomes more tender. When you obey, you’re letting in a little more light. Your heart will be a little softer and you’ll respond more quickly. You can get to the point where you are so sensitive that when you first feel that uneasiness, it will get your attention and cause you to make changes. Really, that’s the kind of people God wants us to be. When we hear the still, small voice, when we first feel that little nudge, we are quick to take action.

A young man with whom I attended college had a habit of being short with people. Sometimes, he was downright rude. One day we were at a restaurant together with a group of guys from the school, and the waiter mixed up my friend’s order. My friend jumped down the waiter’s throat. I mean he let him have it and embarrassed him in front of all of us.

After we got back to the dorm, my friend came into my room about an hour later and asked if he could borrow my car. I said, “Sure you can, but where are you going at this late hour?” “Joel, I feel terrible,” he said. “I treated that waiter so badly, I can’t even sleep. I’m going to go back there and apologize to him.”

That young man changed over the course of that year. He went from being hard, cold, and rude to being one of the kindest, most considerate people you could ever meet. God will help you to change, if you will simply work with Him.

None of us is perfect. We all make mistakes, but we can learn to obey our own consciences if we can be big enough to say, “I’m sorry, I didn’t treat you right, I’ll do better next time.” If you will be sensitive and maintain a clear conscience, there’s no limit to what God will do in your life. In contrast, when you have a guilty conscience, you don’t feel good about yourself. You’re not happy; you can’t pray with boldness; you feel condemned. You don’t expect good things, and you usually don’t receive them.

At that point, the best thing you can do is go back and make things right. Like that young man, swallow your pride and be quick to obey. Apologize to the people you have offended. Don’t live with a guilty conscience.

The Scripture says in Matthew 6:22 that the lamp of the body is the eye. Your “spiritual eye” is your conscience. Jesus goes on to say that if the eye is clear, the whole body will be filled with light. In other words, if your conscience is clear, life is good. You’re going to be happy. You will have a positive vision and will enjoy God’s blessings.

Then the next verse describes many people today. It says in the Amplified Version, “If our conscience is full of darkness, then how dense will that darkness be.” Many people are living with a heaviness hanging over their lives. They’re not happy. The problem is they don’t have a clear conscience. They’ve ignored the warnings for too long. They’ve gotten hard and cold in certain areas.

That insensitivity won’t change until you make the proper adjustments. If there are things that you are doing that you know you should not be doing, then make some adjustments. Make a decision that you’re going to pay more attention to your conscience and that you are going to be quick to obey. That’s when the heaviness will leave. I like what the Apostle Paul said in Acts 23. He said, “I have always lived before God with a clear conscience.” That should be our goal as well. When our conscience is clear, condemnation flees. When we have a clear conscience, we can be happy.