Can we trust our conscience?

[Salluz]

I am wondering how much we can trust our consciences. Are there situations where we feel bad about something we dont have to feel bad about? I think the answer to that is yes, but what is a healthy level of distrust toward one's own feelings? How does one rewrite his conscience based on what he knows the bible says is true and not based on preconceived notions? I often find myself feeling condemned for a sin even after I have confessed it for example, but the bible says as soon as we confess it to God we are forgiven. How do I get my conscience to listen to what I know is true?

And is something a sin if our conscience condemns us in it, or is a Roman's 14 issue only a sin if we come to that conclusion based on the bible? Sometimes the conclusions I come to dont seem to match my emotions or conscience

 

[Armor of Light]

Satan gives condemnation, the Holy Spirit gives conviction. If you sin and the Spirit convicts, ask forgiveness, it's done , over with, the enemy will try to mess with your head and bring condemnations.

 

[mattfivefour]

Satan gives condemnation, the Holy Spirit gives conviction. If you sin and the Spirit convicts, ask forgiveness, it's done , over with, the enemy will try to mess with your head and bring condemnations.

 

[Everlasting Life]

I have often prayed that God would remove unnecessary guilt from my mind.
Somtimes things from my background will kick in and it's good to recognize if unhealthy messages threaten to overtake.

It's helpful to try to identify what the core thought or message is, where that may be coming from and then counter with scripture.

Having scripture readily available to meditate on is helpful. To gently redirect your thoughts to scriprure of truth.

In it all we can trust that God loves us deeply and He will faithfully remove things or grow us.

 

[Salluz]

Thanks for the response concerning guilt. That's one part of the issue for me, the other being a trending toward legalism in my conscience it seems, so I don't know when to trust that something was actually a sin I'm being convicted of and not just my over active self righteousness condemning an innocuous behavior, action, etc.

I end up asking forgiveness for things all the time that I'm not even sure are a sin and basically being anxious often that every thought and action are sinfully driven. My mind cycles through "this should be okay because of this and this scripture" but then changes to "you're just trying to justify sinful behavior and you should look at this and this scripture" and I go back and forth not knowing one way or the other and generally feeling torn up.

I find myself praying psalms 19:12-14 often (or at least my paraphrase of it since i haven't memorized fully) but wondering at the end worrying thinking I haven't quite repented of one specific sin and that may be hindering my prayers asking for forgiveness.

It isn't a fun cycle by any means, and it isn't edifying to me to spend so much time in anxiety. It feels like when I cut things out of my life I feel better and my conscience doesn't condemn me, but then I start to get self-righteous and puffed up because of my good behavior, then I always cycle over to the other extreme where I question everything I am doing and I'm prone to falling back into old sins that haunt me. It would be really nice if I could just trust my conscience to guide me, but that doesn't really work out

Sorry for the rambles, just a complicated issue that has been weighing on my mind

 

[Jan51]

Thanks for the response concerning guilt. That's one part of the issue for me, the other being a trending toward legalism in my conscience it seems, so I don't know when to trust that something was actually a sin I'm being convicted of and not just my over active self righteousness condemning an innocuous behavior, action, etc.

I end up asking forgiveness for things all the time that I'm not even sure are a sin and basically being anxious often that every thought and action are sinfully driven. My mind cycles through "this should be okay because of this and this scripture" but then changes to "you're just trying to justify sinful behavior and you should look at this and this scripture" and I go back and forth not knowing one way or the other and generally feeling torn up.

I find myself praying psalms 19:12-14 often (or at least my paraphrase of it since i haven't memorized fully) but wondering at the end worrying thinking I haven't quite repented of one specific sin and that may be hindering my prayers asking for forgiveness.

It isn't a fun cycle by any means, and it isn't edifying to me to spend so much time in anxiety. It feels like when I cut things out of my life I feel better and my conscience doesn't condemn me, but then I start to get self-righteous and puffed up because of my good behavior, then I always cycle over to the other extreme where I question everything I am doing and I'm prone to falling back into old sins that haunt me. It would be really nice if I could just trust my conscience to guide me, but that doesn't really work out

Sorry for the rambles, just a complicated issue that has been weighing on my mind

I suspect that is pretty typical for the Christian. At least it sounds rather familiar to me...

 

[mattfivefour]

Me, too!

 

[ehbowen]

I keep in mind that the enemy continually accuses us. Continually. And at least in my mind the proper response is to agree that, yes, I did that; I accept responsibility; I request God's forgiveness; and if at some point in the future there is a chance for me to make some real restitution I would ask for that opportunity. While the Holy Spirit doesn't want us to dwell on our sin or to punish ourselves, I believe that he does want us to agree that it is serious and needs to be properly dealt with...and not to act as though God's forgiveness is a "Get Out of Jail Free" card. Again, in my mind forgiveness for the penalty of sin does not mean that there should be no consequences for our sin...and I believe that a willingness to make restitution indicates acceptance of those consequences and is pleasing to God.

As to whether or not we can "trust" our conscience...I've had a small amount of training and experience as a pilot. And I know that when you fly into clouds you MUST trust your instruments or you will crash, every time. But instruments need to be calibrated to be effective...when you take off you set your directional gyro to the heading of the runway or else in the air when you're steady on course you set it to your compass heading BEFORE you enter the clouds, or it will give you a false reading. Trusting your conscience on the spur of the moment is akin to looking at your gyro when you inadvertently fly into a cloud; it's what you have to go on at the moment. But if your conscience is not calibrated by periodically studying God's word and His principles, and seeking to know his mind and his will...then it will lead you astray, often when you most need it.

 

[mattfivefour]

I might add that Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?" And Proverbs 14:12 and 16:25 both say, "There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death." The point being that we cannot trust the thoughts from within ourselves. The only thing we can trust is God and His Word. And that alone convicts or clears. Therefore let us rest secure in 1 John 3:21-- "If our hearts (some translations say 'conscience') condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and He knows all things."

 

[Forgiven1]

Our minds need to be renewed by God's Word. The more we read His Word, the more our thoughts line up with God's.

Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

 

[Everlasting Life]

I am wondering how much we can trust our consciences. Are there situations where we feel bad about something we dont have to feel bad about? I think the answer to that is yes, but what is a healthy level of distrust toward one's own feelings? How does one rewrite his conscience based on what he knows the bible says is true and not based on preconceived notions? I often find myself feeling condemned for a sin even after I have confessed it for example, but the bible says as soon as we confess it to God we are forgiven. How do I get my conscience to listen to what I know is true?

And is something a sin if our conscience condemns us in it, or is a Roman's 14 issue only a sin if we come to that conclusion based on the bible? Sometimes the conclusions I come to dont seem to match my emotions or conscience

I was thinking about this a bit more today about how our consciences point to God's way of love. The 10 commandments are basically how to love God and one another and every human being knows from their conscience when they have strayed. Of course, now those in Christ are filled with the Holy Spirit causing us to to want to follow God, to be inclined to follow rather than constantly resisting and we have His power to do this. And God's Word gives us direction.

As far as Romans 14 and the conscience, the context seems to be about being considerate towards others who's conscience may be pricked by worshiping on one day over another, or perhaps engaging in an activity that wouldn't be a big deal for one person but another person may need to abstain because of certain weaknesses or their past, etc. All this seems centered in loving one another in this way by being considerate of one who may have a sensitive conscience about certain things. While there are some general things to consider for the sake of others watching, it seems that if a particular person with particular sensitivities becomes apparent, then that would be when others would act in consideration to those sensitivities of the conscience, rather than to be overly anxious on this. These are my own observations and certainly welcome additional thoughts on this. Of course everyone's situation is different and God is in process of growing us in this area.

I do think that as Christians grow and mature in Christ that there will be things that once went against their conscience that may not be so any more (not pushing anyone to go against their conscience, just sharing). I say this because I came from a place where worshiping one day over the other, as talked about in Romans, was a big deal in my life and I wasn'tquite ready to step out in faith on this one. It wasn't until I grew more and more in Christ, understood more in Christ and praying for God's help in this matter that I was finally able to grow out of this so to speak. And God was very patient with me on this knowing my history and makeup, but it seemed He thought it was important for me to do so.

Now, there are times where I have felt a pause before proceeding with something or I might wonder suddenly if I need to do or not do something (that doesn't go against God's direct instructions in His Word). When I get to where I'm kind of paralyzed feeling, or all over the place, that's when I just pray and ask God for His guidance. That if there really is a problem or things that I need to change that He would make that pretty clear to me and help me if I'm being unnecessarily over scrupulous. Even take away those things that are not of Him in terms of things I might be overly conscientious about that I don't need to be. For me that's important because I could easily get overscrupulous.

In fact recently I prayerfully started down a path that wasn't a bad thing but I ended up changing my mind and turning back. I kept on feeling uneasy and prayed for help from God. What ended up happening were some blocks that popped up which gave me serious pause. They were also blocks in which I believe God was graciously using to give me a way out. I'm very glad for His kind help. I'm not completely sure why it was good to turn back, but I do feel much more at peace and thankful for that. I'm not going to go around in circles in my mind about this though....I'm just going to rest and trust that God will make things clear or move in the situation.

There's another situation where I would feel overly anxious for some reason, but I realized that there was a negative critical feel I was wrestling with. Logically I knew that I was acting in consideration of others, but I kept coming up against a negative, judgemental sense. I prayed about that and it came to me how when I was younger a well meaning person had placed a burden on me that really wasn't for me to carry, a resposibility that belonged to others to act on. That was really helpful to realize and then I prayed for God's help to remove this negative, judgemental burden from me that wasn't from Him.

ETA: Just yesterday one of my kids expressed feeling conscientious about using straws because of environmental aspects. This is one who's needing to find their own faith in God. Now I'm down with keeping the earth clean for good health, etc. (not in a militant sense), but I know that there will eventually be a new earth someday so I'm not extremely worried. But, ...for my child's sake and their growing in the Lord I let them know I wouldn't use straws either, except for a few needed medical exceptions. This is a case where a specific consciencesness emerged and I immediately knew it would be good, for their spiritual sake (at the very least garnering trust and relationship to be able to speak on things of God ) to be respectful of my child in this. Anyways...just thought I'd throw some stories out there for helpfulness.

I love how Psalm 23 talks about how our Good Shepard guides us on the right paths and we can trust Him to do that. For me this helps me to peacefully rest in His guidance that He will be sure to provide.

1The Lord is my shepherd;
I have all that I need.
2 He lets me rest in green meadows;
he leads me beside peaceful streams.
3 He renews my strength.
He guides me along right paths,
bringing honor to his name.
4 Even when I walk
through the darkest valley,
I will not be afraid,
for you are close beside me.
Your rod and your staff
protect and comfort me.
5 You prepare a feast for me
in the presence of my enemies.
You honor me by anointing my head with oil.
My cup overflows with blessings.
6 Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me
all the days of my life,
and I will live in the house of the Lord
forever.

 

[ehbowen]

I was thinking about this a bit more today about how our consciences point to God's way of love. The 10 commandments are basically how to love God and one another and every human being knows from their conscience when they have strayed.

I will agree that every human being SHOULD know from their conscience when they have strayed, but some people have "burned out" their conscience. Romans 1 speaks of those who can call evil good and good evil being "given over to a reprobate mind." They can no longer distinguish right from wrong. It literally takes a miracle to reach these people with the Truth.

Of course, that's our God's stock in trade....

 

[Everlasting Life]

Good point, ehbowen.

I guess my post was in the context of believers in Christ and one walking in Christ.