Guilty Conscience

"My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden to heavy to bear."" Psalm 38:4

How is your conscience working today? Are you even conscious of your conscience? Are you conscientious of your conscience? Why are the words con and science in the word conscience? Enough with the questions today. So what is my point here, so far? Guilt is not a bad thing sometimes. We should feel the pangs of guilt and many times they can manifest themselves with physical maladies.... such as aches and pains and unknown nausea and illness. David's sin, whatever it is this time, has caused him to be sick of himself. His conscience is working overtime.

Get ready, because here come some more clever questions. Is your conscience laid off or even fired? Whenever I am operating outside of God's will (another fancy way of saying "sinning"), I usually just don't feel right. I know something is wrong, hence why it is my conscience speaking and weighing me down. Since I cannot bear it, I must give it to Jesus. In the last verse of this Psalm David says, "Come quickly to help me, O Lord my Savior." Only Jesus can save me from the pain and anguish of my conscience.

Of course I must stop the sin, too. Otherwise I will be sick again soon. You know the kind of sick? Not the infected or feverish kind, or the kind you can treat with medicines. The 'sick and tired' kind. The 'sick of life' kind. The kind that comes from inside your head, and heart, and seems to take over your whole body. The depressed and anxious, blah feeling. The kind that immobilizes you and steals your joy. The kind the devil feeds and the Lord is waiting to take away.

For me these bouts of conscientiousness come pretty regularly. I believe a healthy conscience is a good thing. The possibility of going through life without conscience is frightening. Can you imagine not caring, or just doing whatever without ever considering what the rightness or wrongness of it is? On the other hand, when guilt leads to a shame that seems unforgiveable or that does not lead us to inviting Jesus to intervene, that is too much. I am not advocating self-loathing hate or self-deprecations. That is another form of martyrdom and is unacceptable. If you are feeling out of sorts though, maybe a little inventory of how you are doing in the sense of being in His will might help.

I hope today, that you see that David's soul searching is good medicine and that his hyperactive conscience is something that keeps him in check. He would not advocate us failing at trying to be perfect. Just to be real, honest, contrite and forthright about what might be the real source of that "ickiness" that we cannot shake. Just writing this makes me feel better. Hope it helped you a little, too. In His Service, Pastor Fred

Tweet