Heart Soul Mind Strength

compass to guide the heart

In the Garden of Eden, we had a choice to trust God or take matters of good and evil into our own hands. The following story of how humanity abandoned the good world God made by listening to the lying voice of the enemy is found in the Bible in Genesis chapter 3 (New International Version.):

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.”

Choosing to eat fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil is where our conscience (with knowledge) comes from. Instead of learning wisdom step-by-step, day by day from God as He built with us relationship and character; with one decision, we pulled back the shielding and let evil into our very souls. We were not so wise as we imagined we would be. Despite having so much knowledge and information available to us, we often fail to make the decision to do good that leads to life and joy. We often do wrong even with a horrifying feeling inside that we are making ourselves sick. So many songs lament this inability to make good decisions that benefit us in the end; but instead, being stuck in a pathway of destruction. Every time we do wrong, on some level, we know that it is wrong and still do it. There is an alarm bell connected with our conscience to help us know when we are doing wrong. Unfortunately, from a young age, we begin to ignore the warning pings of the conscience.

I am no exception to this human resistance to the gift of the conscience. As a youth, my conscience let me know “should” from “should not” in many little instances. I desired to be successful at doing well because there were externally enforced consequences for doing the wrong thing. However, I also felt the allure of worldly promises of leisure, fun and acceptance in things that drew me off course from my intended dedication to God and His kingdom. My mind is vulnerable to trickery through my own desires. If I let my feelings and desires lead me, I will be far off course. The conscience is good for making me uncomfortable in the instant of beginning to do something I had previously recognized as wrong.

The conscience is equally good at gifting me with discomfort at an internal motivation for an otherwise acceptable outward behavior. I must listen to my conscience to sort out whether my daily habits and personal priorities are just the fancies of my own fleshly desires or if they are good and properly motivated.

For example, I believe that I ought to live a disciplined life in all areas. For example, I should be faithful in Bible reading and prayer and also disciplined to stay physically fit. Faithfulness in Bible reading and prayer is invisible to the majority of people; while, faithfulness or unfaithfulness in principles of physical fitness are more likely evident to people. My conscience does not allow me to dedicate too much time to the physical fitness efforts to the neglect of the unseen discipline of prayer because it knows the motivations of my heart. No discipline is wrong of itself, but the conscience is watching with full understanding of my motives. Focusing on what people see more than what people do not see reveals that I am working to bring recognition to my own efforts instead of working to be in all things disciplined to be pleasing to the Lord, who sees all.

That pinging alarm deep down inside goes off when we do something that we sense is wrong. These wrong actions don’t even have to be noticeable to the person next to us. Each of us is responsible for minding the alarm and choosing to do right even if nobody else sees or knows anything about what’s happening inside our own conscience.

We all have done wrong things even after we’ve heard the alarm bell warning us, from within our own conscience. We become less and less sensitive to the alarm if we continue to ignore it.

Eventually, the path of choosing against our conscience becomes visible to people around. Each wrong choice is impactful to ourselves and to others in ways we may not see.

When I was a young adult, I went into a restaurant to pick up an order for a friend. While I was there, my senses were caught and attracted by the aesthetically lit and decorated bar area. My sinful heart was drawn to something about it. A thought popped into my mind that I would see what this type of life was about once I was on my own. I did. For a few years, I occasionally ventured some risk into various places or situations that appealed to me. I did some foolish things because I just felt like it; my tricky heart pushed past my screaming conscience. Looking back, I see no appeal in such places for anyone who has found Life in Christ; but, at the time I was suppressing the wisdom I had received from parents and teachers. My deceitful heart (Jeremiah 17:9) told me that I needed to feel like I was living my own life. The number of times that thoughts have entered and subtly pulled me off course, like a deadly undertow or rip current, highlights the value of the 2 Corinthians 10:5’s instructions to take “every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”

Inside us, if we continue doing things we feel are wrong, our conscience sounds a louder alarm of guilt and shame.  The clanging of these are a torturous tumult to us and pound incessantly on our minds and hearts. These clang to warn us of the imminent danger of a lifetime of ignoring the conscience. The conscience going against our will to be our own boss constitutes a heart divided against itself. Such strained internal conflict can drive us either to self-medicate, or to bury our heart in distractions, or to turn back to God, asking for help.

God wants us to do right by choice. He wants our will to align with our conscience to strengthen us to do right despite opposing external pressures. Our choices under pressure reveal our state of internal affairs. We cannot expend enough effort to appear fine on the outside if our will is misaligned with our conscience. When we forget to keep up positive outward appearances, other people can see that we are double minded and unstable (James 1:8.)

It is by the grace of God, through the redeeming death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that we can be forgiven. After we receive the salvation of Christ by faith, His Word remakes our mind to refit our conscience according to God’s desires, beyond just the rules, as His blood cleanses our hearts and re-sensitizes us to the conscience. Born again, the newly born by the Spirit is very sensitive to the Father. Our position is one of full dependence on, trust in, and growing love for God as we receive His provisions for us. He protects us. In His arms, we are safe from the lies that His enemy tries to get us to believe.

Our conscience becomes clear, loud, and very helpful to us as we understand the context of God’s overwhelming love for us. We recognize how it helps us show love to our Heavenly Father by caring about His instructions to us. We do not want to ignore or disconnect the alarm bell because our newly remade hearts recognize the alarm as our friend. We yield our hearts, time, and energy to God’s desires, finding peace and rest walking in His ways. Outwardly, this results in a consistent choosing the good and right course of action. If we falter, we immediately seek forgiveness and restoration in humble acquiescence.

Let God save you from the muddling in sinful darkness, and let the Peace of Jesus Christ rule in your heart as His Truth gives your mind assurances and the Spirit unfolds beautiful life and fruit in your life.