A Guilty Conscience

 God is so loving and merciful that when we sin, He will not allow us to forget our sin until we confess it and repent of it. This is because He knows the wages of sin is death. He knows that if we never repent of our sins and trust Christ, our sins will separate us from Him forever. That is the worst thing that can happen to anyone, and God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance for their sins. For Christians, God does the same thing. Once we sin, He will keep reminding us by His Spirit, and we will feel that guilt until we confess our sin and turn from it. That is what we see happened to Joseph's brothers after they sold him into slavery, and years later they had to go to Egypt to buy grain during the terrible famine. Joseph was the one they had to go to to buy the grain. They did not recognize him, but he knew them. So Joseph gave them a hard time about being spies and asked them to bring his brother Benjamin to prove they were not spies. (Genesis 42:21) As they spoke with each other, they said that they were clearly being punished for what they had done to Joseph so long ago. They had seen his anguish as he pled for his life, but they wouldn't listen. Therefore, they knew this trouble had come on them because of their sin. This happens to all of us.

I wonder how often we stop to listen to the Holy Spirit, and we ask Him to show us our sins so we can confess them and be cleansed. (I John 1:9) I believe this should be a daily occurrence for every believer. We should keep our sins confessed, as soon as the Spirit convicts us, or at least on a daily basis. If we fail to do this, our hearts get harder and harder, so it makes it more difficult for us to hear from the Lord and to do the right thing. We get set in our sinful ways. Even though we continue to have a guilty conscience, we ignore what God wants us to do. That leads to a great conflict in our heart, and we are stressed because of our guilt, whether we realize it or not. The best way to have peace is to make things right with the Lord and with others as soon as possible after a sin has been committed. I think we should praise God for His love and thank Him for the gift of a guilty conscience. It is His merciful way to set us free from our sins. If you know you need Christ right now, stop and trust Him as your Lord and Savior, once and for all. If you are a believer, stop and ask the Spirit to search you for any sins, so you can be made clean now.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read Genesis 43-46.