Still, Small Voice, Christian

Jan.31.07: Light for the Day - "Still, Small Voice" (<<) (>>)

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("Pray To Receive Christ")

-- 1 John 3:20-22
20 Whenever our hearts (conscience) condemn us.
   For God is greater than our hearts,
   and He knows everything.
21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us,
   we have confidence before God
22 and receive from Him anything we ask, because
   we obey His commands and do what pleases Him.

-- Psalms 26:2-3
2 Examine me, O LORD, and prove me;
   Try my mind and my heart.
3 For Your loving-kindness is before my eyes,
   And I have walked in Your Truth.

"Let your conscience be your guide" is only valid if
God's Word is guiding your conscience. -- Anonymous.

Have you ever stopped in the middle of an activity because
an internal voice was warning you of potentially negative
consequences? Or paused mid-sentence because that
same voice was cautioning you that your words might be
unnecessarily hurtful? That little voice is what some might
call your conscience. But what is your conscience?
And is it trustworthy?

If cartoons are to be believed, your conscience wears
angel wings and sits on one of your shoulders, offering the
good-guy advice that is in sharp contrast to the devilish
suggestions from the character with the pointy tail on your
other shoulder. Amazingly, dictionaries seem to agree.
The American Heritage Dictionary defines conscience as
"the awareness of a moral or ethical aspect to one's
conduct together with the urge to prefer right over wrong."
Just like that little angel. The Random House Webster's
Unabridged Dictionary says it this way: "the inner sense
of what is right or wrong in one's conduct or motives,
impelling one toward right action." And Merriam-Webster's
Collegiate Dictionary says: "the sense of the consciousness
of the moral goodness or blameworthiness of one's own
conduct, intentions, or character together with a feeling of
obligation to do right or be good."

But there's a problem. Who's to say what's "right" and
what's "wrong"? What source does this little voice
reference to determine that which is considered moral or
ethical? Good question. In his letter to Titus, Paul
suggested that a conscience can be bad as well as good.
He also pointed out the difference between the two.

Without the anchor of a relationship with God, a conscience
is nothing more than a reasonable facsimile of morality --
something pieced together out of societal norms and worldly
wisdom. For those who know God, however, that which they
call conscience is most likely guidance from the Creator of
morality: God in His Spirit. Working from the inside out.
God's Spirit can nudge you toward intelligent decisions on
what to say and what to do -- and what not to say or what
not to do.

Does that mean everything you hear from the voice in
your head is a directive from God? Probably not. But if you
desire to know God and to do His will, more often than not
the voice you hear whispering advice will be the Still
Small Voice of God. It's a Voice worth listening to.

-- CL4Life

My conscience is captive to the Word of God.
I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is
neither honest nor safe. -- Martin Luther

-- Acts 24:16
   So I strive always to keep my conscience clear
   before God and man.

-- Romans 2:11-16
11 For God does not show favoritism.
12 All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart
   from the law, and all who sin under the law will be
   judged by the law.
13 For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous
   in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will
   be declared righteous.
14 (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law,
   do by nature things required by the law, they are a law
   for themselves, even though they do not have the law,
15 since they show that the requirements of the law are
   written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing
   witness, and their thoughts now accusing,
   now even defending them.)
16 This will take place on the day when God will judge
   men’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.

-- Romans 9:1
   I speak the truth in Christ -- I am not lying,
   my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit.

-- 1 Corinthians 4:1-5
1 So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ
   and as those entrusted with the secret things of God.
2 Now it is required that those who have been given
   a trust must prove faithful.
3 I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human
   court; indeed, I do not even judge myself.
4 My conscience is clear, but that does not make me
   innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.
5 Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time;
   wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is
   hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of
   men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise
   from God.

-- 2 Corinthians 1:12
   Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that
   we have conducted ourselves in the world,
   and especially in our relations with you, in the holiness
   and sincerity that are from God. We have done so not
   according to worldly wisdom but according to God’s grace.

-- 1 Timothy 1:5; 19
5 The goal of this command is love, which comes from
   a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
19 Holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some
   have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith.

-- Hebrews 4:13
   Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight
   Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes
   of Him to whom we must give account.

-- Hebrews 10:22-25
22 Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full
   assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to
   cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our
   bodies washed with pure water.
23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess,
   for He who promised is faithful.
24 And let us consider how we may spur one another
   on toward love and good deeds.
25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in
   the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another --
   and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

-- Hebrews 13:18
   Pray for us. We are sure that we have a clear conscience
   and desire to live honorably in every way.

-- 1 Peter 3:16-17, 21-22
16 Keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak
    maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be
    ashamed of their slander.
17 It is better, if it is God’s will,
   to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.

21 And this water symbolizes baptism that now saves
   you also -- not the removal of dirt from the body but
   the pledge of a good conscience toward God.
   It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
22 who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand --
   with angels, authorities and powers in submission to Him.

-- Jeremiah 17:9-10
9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.
   Who can understand it? 10 "I the LORD search the heart
   and examine the mind, to reward a man according to
   his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve."

-- Job 27:6
   I will maintain my innocence without wavering.
   My conscience is clear for as long as I live.

-- Psalms 139
1 O LORD, You have searched me and You know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
   You perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
   You are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue You know it completely,
   O LORD.
5 You hem me in -- behind and before;
   You have laid Your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
   too lofty for me to attain.

7 Where can I go from Your Spirit?
   Where can I flee from Your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, You are there;
   If I make my bed in the depths, You are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
   If I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 Even there Your hand will guide me,
   Your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
   and the light become night around me,"
12 Even the darkness will not be dark to You;
   the night will shine like the day,
   for darkness is as light to You.
13 For You created my inmost being;
   You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
   Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from You when I was made
   in the secret place. When I was woven together in
   the depths of the earth,
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body.
   All the days ordained for me were written in
   Your book before one of them came to be.

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
   Test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
   And lead me in the way everlasting.