Listening to Your Conscience

To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled (Titus 1:15 NKJV)

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.  But there is 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 wordly 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.