IS YOUR CONSCIENCE ALIVE? – Saturday September 2nd 2017
Memorise:
Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of
evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good
conversation in Christ. 1st Peter 3:16
Read: 2nd Samuel 12:7-14 (KJV)
12:7 And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul;
12:9 Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord,
to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the
sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with
the sword of the children of Ammon.
12:10 Now
therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou
hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy
wife.
12:11 Thus saith the Lord,
Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I
will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy
neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun.
12:12 For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.
12:13 And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.
12:14 Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die.
MESSAGE:
A true representative of a good family will do everything possible to protect name of the family. For this reason, Proverbs 22:1 says,
“A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches and loving favour rather than silver and gold.”
If
you are a worthy child of God, you will do all you can to honour God’s
Name, and you will never bring it into disrepute. Honouring God’s Name
goes beyond lip service; God expects you to prove that you honour Him
through your actions. In 1st Samuel 17:1-51,
David was angry that an uncircumcised Philistine could boldly insult
the God of Israel, and yet nobody could do anything about it. He
therefore took up the challenge of defending God’s Name. What have you
done to defend or honour God’s Name? In what way has your nation, state,
community or even your workplace recognised the Lordship and greatness
of God above all other gods because of your presence there? The
patriarchs of old were not ashamed to stand for this same God, even at
the cost of their lives (Hebrews 11:36-37).
But how is it with you today? Are you even ashamed to publicly
associate yourself with Jesus Christ, so that your peers and superiors
will not look down on you?
If
you truly hallow God’s Name, then under no circumstance would you
defile that Name. When someone looks at you and say, “How could you do
this? And you call yourself a child of God!” Those words will go through
you like a hot iron if your conscience is alive. If those words were
spoken to you because you truly did err from the faith, you would feel
pain in your heart, become miserable and feel ashamed of yourself. If
indeed your conscience is alive, in such a moment, you would see
yourself as a wretched sinner and immediately run to the cross of
Calvary for mercy and forgiveness. If your conscience is however dead,
you may not feel a thing and just move on as if nothing ever happened.
Is your conscience still alive? Does it warn you before you do any evil?
Does it prick you when you sin? In 2nd Samuel 11,
David and Bathsheba fell into the sin of adultery. By the time Nathan
confronted David over this evil act, he felt horrible. He was broken and
in pain. God told him that his actions had brought shame and disgrace
to His Name (2nd Samuel 12:14).
David genuinely repented, and God forgave him. At what stage do you
realise you have sinned, and what is your response to this realisation?
Prayer Point
Father, from now on, may I never bring shame to Your Name by my deeds.
Open
Heavens Daily Devotional Lessons was written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye,
the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, one of the
largest evangelical Church in the world and also the President of
Christ the Redeemer's Ministries.
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