Our consciences should be used to help us order the evil thoughts that will surely pop into our minds. This daily devotional begins to look at how we can direct our thoughts by realizing God is omniscient and will judge us in the end.
Nuggets
- Our conscience governs our thoughts and could be good or evil.
- God sees everything, even our thoughts.
- When we choose the evil, God will judge us.
To read devotions in the Redo for Godliness series, click the appropriate button below.
Devotions in the How Do We Live Godly Lives? series
We are talking about how to awe our hearts in this grouping of Charnock’s sermon. We should be in awe because God is omniscient. That will really become evident on judgment day,
“Awe your hearts with the thoughts of God’s omniscience, especially the discovery of it at the last judgment” (Charnock, The Sinfulness and Cure of Thoughts)
Let's Put It into Context #1
We’ve been looking at Charnock’s sermon entitled The Sinfulness and Cure of Thoughts to show us how to cleanse, a.k.a. sanctify, our thought processes. Charnock has taught us
- that we cleanse our thoughts when we return to having a strong relationship with God. We can do that by studying the Scriptures, meditating on God, contemplating on His creation, and praising Him.
- that we focus our thoughts by being humble instead of prideful, following God instead of the worldview, working instead of being idle, and laboring for Him.
- that we overcome our evil thoughts by burying ourselves in Scripture.
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Glossary
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
Let's Put It into Context #2
I know, we’ve talked about God’s omniscience before. Omniscience means God is all-knowing. We can’t hide anything from God.
To read a related devotion, click on the appropriate button below.
Relying on Our Conscience
“for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything” (I Jn. 3: 20 ESV)
Our conscience governs our thoughts and could be good or evil.
My bad. I picked a verse that was the latter part of a sentence. In fact, it was the last point in John’s train of thought.
John was talking about loving one another. He said, however, that we can’t know true love unless we know Jesus.
“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything” (I Jn. 3: 16-20 ESV).
I know. It is talking about our heart, but the heart and conscience are connected, aren’t they? What this is saying is the heart condemns the thoughts.
Clarke explained it this way. He wrote, “For, whatever a man’s own eyes plainly see, he cannot doubt but a person of better eyes must see the same more perfectly. And whatever a man free from passion and wilfulness (sic), upon calm consideration, clearly discerns with his own mind, he is very sure the Infinite and All-knowing Mind cannot but discern still more clearly and distinctly” (emphasis added).
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This is what John was saying here. Our hearts — and our thoughts — condemn us when we choose evil. It is the same judgment that God makes.
Peters, Clarke, Natt hooked it to our conscience. Our conscience is the part of our nature that impacts our moral decisions as it points us to what is right and gives us pain or pleasure depending on the choice. This generally happens through our hearts and our minds working in tandem.
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Before we go any farther, we have to acknowledge what we are choosing between. Our choices are good and evil.
- Good, in the biblical sense, is the workings of God within His people.
- Evil is equated with sin because it is that which goes against God and His purposes.
When we evaluate the choice and work it out in our minds, we will recognize right from wrong. Oh, yes. God can recognize it higher, further, faster.
We can and do ignore our consciences. We can even so ignore what our conscience has told us in the past that we silence our conscience. “They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity” (Eph. 4: 19 ESV).
Natt argued that those who don’t have a good conscience know it. How could they not know it when their consciences are condemning them? The flip side of that is a good conscience doesn’t condemn us.
Clarke contended that our conscience is part of God’s judgment. He said Scriptures present evidence of this belief.
That is the first time I’ve heard the conscience described as a judgment. Usually, it is considered a guide to help us make the right decision.
But I can see that if we look at it through the lens that our conscience really works on us after we make the wrong decision, it is a judgment. Our conscience can bite on us when we choose evil over good.
Why is it so important that we have a good conscience? Natt wrote,
“Who, then, we at length inquire, are those persons who may conclude that they are in a right state, from the circumstance of their conscience not condemning them? The persons who can form this conclusion are those who have acquired, among other things, a correct knowledge of what is essential to the Christian character. And having obtained this knowledge of the Christian character, they search deeply into their own. His repentance, and faith, and love, and obedience, though not perfect, are yet genuine.”
Resource
A good conscience is important to a good character. Our character is our thoughts, feelings, and actions all added together.
Our thoughts are important to our character.
Relying on God’s Omniscience
God sees everything, even our thoughts.
How can God know everything, especially what is in our minds? “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable” (Heb. 4: 13 CSB).
God created us to be like Him.
Glossary
God provides for us because He knows what we need. South wrote, “… His providence sufficiently declares His omniscience; if He manages, rules, and governs all things, yea sin itself, it clearly follows that He has full cognisance (sic) of those things, since all these acts presuppose knowledge.” This makes it certain that God knows what we need and provides it.
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God sees what we think we have hidden. He knows our thoughts even though they are inside of us. He knows our actions that we thought no one saw.
I have to think about this. South said that God knows all things because He knows the possibilities because He sees His own perfection and He sees His perfection in us. Even more, God knows what will actually happen.
Relying on God’s Judgment
“And I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works” (Rev. 2: 23 ESV)
When we choose the evil, God will judge us.
Ludlow made a great observation. He reminded us that we don’t always see what we do as sin because we routinely do it. But God sees every sin we commit.
Isn’t it easy just to consider what is happening now? We forget about the past, so we don’t remember past sins. Ludlow saw this as a problem because only “… God sees us altogether in our general character, the drift and meaning of our lives.”
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Ooo, baby. Character, drift, and meaning.
We build our character with the building blocks of thoughts, actions, and feelings. But I read this to be saying it is easy to forget about what made us us.
When we add this to we don’t always see sin as sin, it really makes it a scary thought. How are we ever going to be perfect and forego judgment?
The answer is that God looks at our hearts. “… For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (I Sam. 16: 7 ESV).
I read this to mean that God is looking to make sure we are sincere and genuine. He knows we aren’t going to be perfect until we get out of these sinful bodies. But how hard are we trying? Are we even wanting to be moving in the right direction?
We can’t say, “Oh, God is love, so He will give us a pass.” He didn’t give Moses a pass and let Him into the Promised Land. Our sins are punished.
But God sent His Son to die for us so that we can have our sins forgiven — when we repent. Repentance is acknowledging our separation from God and expressing sorrow for breaking God’s laws and commandments by making the commitment to changing ourselves through obedience so that we no longer do the wrong things.
A major way we show that we have sincerely repented is turning away from our sins. We try to stop doing them.
God will give us time to repent. “I gave her time to repent …” (Rev. 2: 21 ESV).
But the time God allots for that repentance is limited. “Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass” (Job 14: 5 ESV).
No, God doesn’t want us to miss this opportunity. He will work on us to get us to be what we need. “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit” (Jn. 15: 2 ESV).
We will only be successful with God’s pruning. We can’t remake ourselves.
Making the Connections
Our goal is to corral our thoughts. We want full perfection.
The Homilist had an interesting tidbit. In their sermon Christian Excellence, they wrote, “Christian excellence is an attainment in contradistinction to a native growth. It does not spring up in the soul as an indigenous germ. It is a seed that has been taken in and cultivated.”
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Whoa! They said what we just said. It isn’t natural growth. Worldview people are wrong if they think they can get there without God.
They also said what I’ve been saying all along. We get there through sanctification.
The Homilist also said we have to cultivate the seed. That means we have to seek God.
Searching for and Seeking God
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11).
What John went on to say was that we have to hold fast. “Only hold fast what you have until I come” (Rev. 2: 25 ESV).
Stratton told us what we already have.
- Mercy
- Grace
- Sanctifying power
- Freedom and comfort
- God’s love
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What more do we need?
How Do We Apply This?
- We need to be totally sure that we want to and will submit our lives to God when we ABCD. God doesn’t accept our confession unless it is totally sincere.
- If we are wavering, we need to just think about His omniscience.
- Matthew 5: 48 says we are to be perfect as God is, meaning we have to imitate Him.
- We need to hold fast to what we do have.
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The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Father God. We want our consciences to show us Your good. Help us to follow them. Amen.
What do you think?
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