HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 77
page A75
PROMISE FROM GOD
• MAT T H E W 5 :9 | “God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children
of God.”
Conscience is the part of us that helps us understand if we are in line with God’s will. You
could look at it as God’s gift to us that keeps us sensitive to his moral code because it
helps us see ourselves as God sees us. But we must use this gift of conscience. If we
don’t, it will become dull and useless. More than that, it can malfunction if not properly
cared for. It can become a flawed witness that may condemn us too harshly or let us
off too easily. Our conscience will witness effectively to us if we exercise it—if we sincerely try to stay close to God, spend time in his Word, and understand ourselves and
our tendencies toward right and wrong. If your conscience is witnessing faithfully for or
against you, it will activate your heart and mind so that you know what is right and what
is wrong, and you will have a strong inner call, a voice of accountability, to do what is
right. If you have a reputation for not always doing the right thing, or if you find yourself unmoved by evil, it may be an indication that your conscience has become dull or
even inactive. Let God, through his holy Word, continue to develop your conscience in
godly ways; then it can accurately speak to you in a voice that reflects God’s will and
God’s ways.
C
Conscience See also Convictions; Decisions; Truth
• R O MA NS 1 :1 9 -2 0 | They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to
them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through
everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and
divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.
When God created humans, he created them with an innate knowledge of himself. Conscience is the God-given instinct he put deep inside you that guides you to know right
from wrong. It is the part of you that helps you understand if you are in line with God’s
will and God’s Word.
How does our conscience really work? What does it do?
• G E NE SI S 4 2 :2 1 | Speaking among themselves, they said, “Clearly we are being punished
because of what we did to Joseph long ago. We saw his anguish when he pleaded for his
life, but we wouldn’t listen.” (See note on page 41.)
Our conscience testifies against us to ourselves, reminding us of our sins, bringing
a sense of guilt. It then calls us to act to remove this sense of guilt by righting the
wrong.
If God created everyone with a conscience, why have some people done such
horrible things?
• 1 T I MOT H Y 1 :1 9 | 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.
Sin is the act of going against your conscience. You know what you are doing is wrong
because your conscience tells you so, but you do it anyway because it is so appealing.
If you consistently go against what your conscience tells you, you can train yourself to
not hear it calling out to you, warning you of danger. Without a strong conscience, you
become insensitive to sin. In a sense you have “tricked” it into thinking all is well when
it really isn’t.
How does God use other people to stir or prick our conscience?
• 2 SA MU E L 1 2 :1 3 | Then David confessed to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
(See note on page 282.)
HelpFinder
Where does my conscience come from?