The Habit of a Good Conscience
By Oswald Chambers
May 13

So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man. — Acts 24:16

Conscience is the faculty inside us which attaches itself to the highest ideal we know. Either this ideal is God, or it’s something else. If we are in the habit of steadily facing God, our conscience will always guide us toward his perfect law and indicate what we should do.

The question is, Will I obey what my conscience shows me? It is difficult—too difficult—for human nature to keep God’s commands. But God didn’t give his commands to our human nature; he gave them to the life of Jesus inside us. When I lean on the life of Christ within, following God’s commands becomes divinely easy. I should be living in perfect sympathy with Christ. If I am, my mind will be renewed in every circumstance, and I will be able to discern at once what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God (Romans 12:2 KJV).

“Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God” (Ephesians 4:30). God educates us down to the scruple. Is my ear able to hear the tiniest whisper of the Spirit? The Spirit doesn’t come with a voice like thunder, but with a voice so gentle it is easy to ignore. The one thing that keeps the conscience sensitive to him is the continual habit of being open to God on the inside.

If I sense myself beginning to debate with the Spirit, I must stop immediately. There is no debate possible when conscience speaks. If I allow anything, however small, to obscure my inner communion with God, I do so at my own risk. I must drop the thing, whatever it is, and keep my inner vision clear.

🪴🌹🧚🏻🌹🧚🏻🌹🪴🌹
John 10:29-34
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.💫 I and the Father are one.”
Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many GOOD WORKS from the FATHER.💫 For which of these do you stone me?”
“We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere MAN, CLAIM to BE GOD .”
Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are 🌟 “gods”’?
🪸🪸🪸🏵️🪸🪸🪸
HERE CAPITAL G FOR GOD IS IMPORTANT THEN THE SMALL g

But since we were torn away from you, brothers, for a short time, in person not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face, because we wanted to come to you--I, Paul, again and again--but Satan hindered us.

For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at His coming? Is it not you?

For you are our glory and joy.

1 Thessalonians 2:17-20

Paul’s Extraordinary Affection for Believers: 1 Thessalonians 2:17–20, Part 1 | Desiring God
https://www.desiringgod.org/labs/pauls-extraordinary-affection-for-believers

Who Is Paul’s Joy — Christ or the Church? 1 Thessalonians 2:17–20, Part 2 | Desiring God
https://www.desiringgod.org/labs/who-is-pauls-joy-christ-or-the-church

Is Boasting Bad or Good? 1 Thessalonians 2:17–20, Part 3 | Desiring God
https://www.desiringgod.org/labs/is-boasting-bad-or-good

Anne Wilson - Strong

Evening

"Thou art my portion, O Lord."
Psalm 119:57

Look at thy possessions, O believer, and compare thy portion with the lot of thy fellowmen. Some of them have their portion in the field; they are rich, and their harvests yield them a golden increase; but what are harvests compared with thy God, who is the God of harvests? What are bursting granaries compared with him, who is the Husbandman, and feeds thee with the bread of heaven? Some have their portion in the city; their wealth is abundant, and flows to them in constant streams, until they become a very reservoir of gold; but what is gold compared with thy God? Thou couldst not live on it; thy spiritual life could not be sustained by it. Put it on a troubled conscience, and could it allay its pangs? Apply it to a desponding heart, and see if it could stay a solitary groan, or give one grief the less? But thou hast God, and in him thou hast more than gold or riches ever could buy. Some have their portion in that which most men love--applause and fame; but ask thyself, is not thy God more to thee than that? What if a myriad clarions should be loud in thine applause, would this prepare thee to pass the Jordan, or cheer thee in prospect of judgment? No, there are griefs in life which wealth cannot alleviate; and there is the deep need of a dying hour, for which no riches can provide. But when thou hast God for thy portion, thou hast more than all else put together. In him every want is met, whether in life or in death. With God for thy portion thou art rich indeed, for he will supply thy need, comfort thy heart, assuage thy grief, guide thy steps, be with thee in the dark valley, and then take thee home, to enjoy him as thy portion forever. "I have enough," said Esau; this is the best thing a worldly man can say, but Jacob replies, "I have all things," which is a note too high for carnal minds.

Chris Tomlin - I Will Rise

Casting Crowns - Scars in Heaven

Blessed is she who believes.( Luke 1:45)

But, in my own strength, I’ve failed to believe.

But the Bible tells me, “There is incomparably great power for us who believe”. (Eph 1:19)

I want to keep believing.
I want that power every moment.

I want to know those words apply to me and those I love. I want to believe what I desperately want to happen—those faith-filled, God-ordained, things will happen.

Like you, I’ve read Hebrews 11:1, I know faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

I want that kind of strong assurance ....every day.
Don’t you?

And I’m learning, there is a place in faith where our hearts—and all we hope for, and our minds—and all that we know to be true of God as He tells us in His Word, come together.

It’s prayer.

God helps us be assured and keep believing when we pray, when we talk to our Father, and listen for His voice.

Tim Keller explained we were not meant to “choose between a Christian life based on truth and doctrine OR a life filled with spiritual power and experience. They go together.”

The connector of the two is prayer.

There really is “power in prayer”!

It is so much more than a bumper sticker.

Prayer is power for the battle that goes on in our minds, our doubts, and our discouragements.

And, it is in the “keep asking” work of prayer that Paul tells us, in Ephesians 1:15-19, that we find “incomparably great power for us who believe.”

As we pray, all those truths we’ve read in our Bibles become solid-ground blessing to our souls.

I love God’s Word!! But if all we ever do is study the Word, and never pray those truths, I’m convinced we are missing out!

For when we power our beliefs with prayer, supernatural things happen beyond what we could ever ask or imagine.

Our eyes are opened more fully to God’s work among us. Our hearts become more assured to be joyful always( Phil 4:4) and give thanks in all circumstances (1Thess 5:18).

And when we pray, we can remember our earthly afflictions really are preparing us for an eternal glory beyond all comparison.

Yes, prayer causes us to pause, to reset, to remember to look, not just to things that are seen, but to things unseen (2 Cor 4:17-18).

The better things and The Better One!

As the old hymn says,

What a Friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!

Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged,
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful
Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness,
Take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy-laden,
Cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge—
Take it to the Lord in prayer;
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?
Take it to the Lord in prayer;
In His arms He’ll take and shield thee,
Thou wilt find a solace there.

—What a friend we have in Jesus by Joseph Scriven.

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