Your Faith & Your Conscience

As Paul is writing a letter to Timothy encouraging him in his faith, I too was encouraged by the words spoken. Specifically vs.19 “Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear..” Paul was giving Timothy more than just a word, but a tool to “help you(him) fight well in the Lord’s battles.”

In the midst of trials and tribulations, suffering and adversity, one of the first things to be shaken is your faith. Paul says “Cling to your faith in Christ..”let me give you a picture of what that may look like: Imagine being afraid of heights and being persuaded to go on a rollercoaster ride even though everything in you says not to do it. You go on and they fasten you into your seat, you don’t trust them for a second so you start trying to move the 1 inch bar that goes across your waist that is supposed to ensure your safety throughout this ride to see if you’re actually safe. You CLING on to that bar, regretting ever standing in line for this ride, wondering if your friends are really your friends or whether they want to see you suffer to your demise? You have no choice but to put your faith in this piece of metal and pray to God that you will make it through. (I’m clearly traumatized)

I’d like to believe that when Paul tells Timothy to “Cling to his faith in Christ..” that he means to really CLING on to the promises that Christ has spoken over him and to put his faith in Christ and not in anything else.

The other thing Paul tells Timothy to do, which is equally important, is to “keep your conscience clear.” At first glance this seemed like clinging to faith and keeping a clear conscience didn’t really go hand in hand but when we read a little further we can see that Paul makes a connection between our faith and our conscience. Paul says “For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked.” Paul is saying that when we deliberately choose not to listen to our conscience our faith becomes shipwrecked (destroyed or ruined). So how is that possible? How does ignoring my conscience destroy my faith?

Let’s look at how the bible defines faith. In Hebrews 11:1(NIV) it says “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” When we don’t follow or listen to our conscience we are choosing to not let God and the Holy Spirit work in us, to change us, mold us and shape us to be more and more like Christ. When we do this our focus is no longer Christ but ourselves because we think we know better and choose not to follow God’s prompting. Our confidence and assurance is no longer in what we hope for or about what we do not see but in what we know and what we see. That is what shipwrecks our faith. Paul even gives us two examples, “ Hymenaeus and Alexander are two examples. I threw them out and handed them over to Satan so they might learn not to blaspheme God.” According to Paul, Hymenaeus and Alexander are examples of people who deliberately violated their conscience and had their faith shipwrecked. He added that he threw them out and handed them over to Satan so they might learn not to blaspheme God. A warning to adhere to, this would suggest that having a shipwrecked faith can possibly lead to one blaspheming God – speaking irreverently about God.

So how do we cling to our faith in Christ and keep our conscience clear? Well if you’re reading this then you’re on the right path. It starts with Devotion, your relationship with Christ, however that looks like. When you choose to spend time with God, getting to know Him and allowing Him to be a part of your life, then putting your faith in Christ won’t be so hard. It’s through our relationship with Him that we build trust so that we can have confidence in what we hope for and assurance in what we do not see.

Life-Spring has been blessed with the tool we call “Listening Prayer” which enables us to hear God with more precision and accuracy. This tool allows us to be more intentional about our relationship with God and helps us to adhere to His promptings. So when we go about in our daily lives we can keep our conscience clear with the thoughts and decisions we make because it won’t be our first time hearing God and we’ll be able to recognize and hopefully follow our convictions.

Don’t believe me? Give it a try:

Practice Listening Prayer

Take a moment and ask the Lord a question – practice hearing HIM!

Step 1: Ask God to give you direction in “Church/Family/Work/City – anything you want”

Step 2: Tell Him that you are willing to do whatever He tells you – and mean it!

Step 3: Write down the question you have and ask God to speak to you as you read His Word (Colossians 4 – any chapter you want!)

Example Questions: What do you want me to grow in this season? How can I help others today? How do I parent my children at this time? Should I reach out to someone? How can I help my company? etc. 

Step 4: If a word, phrase, sentence or passage seems to stick out and speak to your question, write it down

vs 3, “….”

vs 8, “…”

Step 5: In listening prayer, after your reading, ask God to give you a word, thought, picture, or Scripture to either get direction, or confirm the direction you think you’re receiving