Day 1

The Holy Spirit’s work is to convict us of guilt. Why? Because we can become desensitized to sin...Eventually we will justify the thing that at first alarmed our conscience.

“Gentiles…show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.” —Romans 2:15

Leprosy and sin are often linked in Scripture, and one is a picture of the other. As leprosy destroys the nerve ends so that the victim can no longer feel pain, so sin that is not confessed destroys our conscience so that we no longer feel our guilt, and we learn to live happily in our sin. 

Guilt is like pain. I am grateful for the gift of pain. One day, I had a heart attack. There weren’t any visible, external signs, but it felt like a clamp tightening around my chest. Without the sensation of pain, I would have left my heart unattended to, and would have died. 

The Holy Spirit’s work is to convict us of guilt. Why? Because we can become desensitized to sin. We may commit a sin, and the guilt keeps us awake at night. Our conscience is raging. But do it once again, and we will sleep better the next time. Do it again, and we will sleep even better. Do it again and again and we will eventually sleep normally, for our conscience will have been tamed and we will have become desensitized to our guilt. Eventually we will justify the thing that at first alarmed our conscience.

God instilled within each of us a conscience – an ‘inner sense of what is right and wrong’. It can be tamed, heightened or distorted, but in its Designer’s intent, it is there, like pain, to warn us that something is wrong. The only way sin leaves us is through our mouths. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1.9) Confession really is good for the soul!

Keep your conscience sensitive to God.