1 John 3:19-21 Hereby shall we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our heart before Him, because if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things. Beloved if our heart condemn us not, we have boldness towards God… The issue of the guilty conscience and our standing before God is an interesting one. I used to think that if my conscience was guilty, then God was disapproving of me. However, this passage points out that God and our conscience aren’t the same. Our conscience isn’t the voice of God. He can use it, but they are different. We know this because this passage says that God is greater than our hearts (conscience). So, how do we deal with a guilty conscience? The conscience is a referee. It goes by the established rules. If we have poor understanding, then the rules our conscience has to go by are faulty. A few verses earlier it says, “how can you have means and see someone in need? If we don’t give, God’s love isn’t in us.” Well this world has endless needs. Jesus said, “the poor you have with you always.” He acknowledged that we can’t meet every need. This means we need to turn our attention from some needs and move on. Our conscience could start to feel guilty, if we dwelt on it. Some have over active consciences. The points in the paragraph above should be heeded, then move on. The fact that it’s not God’s voice, understanding Jesus’ exception and diverting our attention are what needs to be practiced. The last verse speaks of the clear conscience. It has confidence towards God. This is the desired state. The book of Hebrews says that we need to come boldly before the throne of grace. Many religions portray the most devout as those that are extremely humble. Almost to the point that their is no personality left. This isn’t biblical. David was full of personality. God created us and wants us to be confident before Him. We don’t have to grovel and crawl before Him. He is our father. A healthy parent/child relation doesn’t involve fear. We often go to our parents first with our needs. So, God wants us to go to Him. Even better, He wants us to go to Him for some level of companionship. David spoke in psalms of this. He said, “Better is one day in Your courts, than a 1,000 days away.” This doesn’t mean our conscience is to be ignored at all times. It’s that which taps us on the shoulder to give things a second (or third) check. We may have violated a code, hurt someone’s feeling and need to address it. Lord, thank You for our conscience. Thank You, also that You don’t want us to allow it to act as a tyrant. Thank You for the boldness that You want us to have. Help us to boldly come to You and to dwell there.