Interesting Quote to Ponder

"Ignoring God while pretending to serve Him is a serious violation of relationship." - Bill Johnson

Confidence before God

How often do you have this lurking sense of not quite measuring up before God? You "know" your sins have been forgiven through Jesus Christ. You "know" that He accepts you and loves you. Yet, you feel this vague, undefined, subtle, can't quite shake it, sense of condemnation. You can quote Romans 8, "there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus," yet it feels more like words than reality. Let's face it, with little effort, I could rattle off several areas in my life that are not where they should be.

So let me ask you this question. Whose voice are you listening to? I have always been intrigued by 1 John 3:18-24. To quote just part of it, "We will know by this [our willingness to follow God's instructions] that we are of the truth, and will persuade our heart before Him in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God." To live in this place would be absolute bliss to me. I am sure there are many opinions on what John meant....so here is my take. There are many voices speaking to us. Some are bad, some are good but not perfect, and there is One that is both good and perfect. The devil and his hoard speak. Always bad! He is called the accuser of the brethren and even when he mixes in some truth, he is still a liar! Then there is our conscience; something the Lord Himself gave us. And although we need to pay attention to our conscience, we also need to recognize that it is not perfect. It has been defiled, and in really extreme situations, seared. This may seem like a strange statement, but there are times when your conscience (or your heart) will condemn you when the Lord Himself does not. This is why John says that God is greater than our hearts. As important as our conscience is, the Lord is greater. If our conscience condemns us, we must take it before the Lord to see what He says. For He is good and perfect. If we desire to follow God and His instruction then even if our heart condemns us, we can come against this condemnation with the assurance that we are right with God. And our hearts will no longer condemn us.

The bottom line is this: if you desire to follow the Lord and are willing to follow His commands, your heart need not condemn you. God can and will guide you and transform you into the image of Jesus. You will make mistakes and sin will occasionally get the better of you. But God sees and knows the entirety of your heart and is quick to forgive and move on. You can be confident before Him and know that you will receive what you ask for. However, if your life is currently in a pattern of not fully following the Lord and you are resisting following His instruction and persist in living according to what is right in your own eyes, then you will not have peace with God, no matter how much you ask for forgiveness and quote Scripture. Only the peace of God that comes by being at peace with God will silence the devil and your own imperfect conscience!