Training A Healthy Conscience

4 It’s my soft pillow. By that I mean, you’ll sleep well at night if your conscience is clear. One proverb goes, "There is no pillow so soft as a clear conscience". The opposite is also true: there’s no pillow so hard as a violated conscience. It’s true you can wear it down and desensitize it, but expect some inner turmoil as you do that.

If you’re in the clear, you don’t have to worry about someone coming to knock on your door. You don’t have to worry about phone calls from angry people you have hurt. You don’t have to wonder what happens if you meet God that night. Benjamin Franklin said, "A good conscience is a continual Christmas." It’s refreshing.

So what if I’m already damaged goods? What are some SIGNS OF CONSCIENCE CANCER: Cancer is a silent slow killer, that goes undetected for a long time. Cancer cells destroy healthy cells one by one. Enough of that and it kills you.

If your conscience is becoming sick, here’s the most obvious sign 1. I’m repeating instead of repenting.

My conscience is in trouble if things I would have not have done before, I’m now doing on a regular basis. Maybe the behaviour that troubled me quite a bit at first now only gives me a little discomfort, or none.

As a child you may steal a little and your conscience ached. You got used to it and soon stealing often will be no big deal. You’re making a reservation for a trip to P.A., the penitentiary that is. At first, if you take extra time off work, you make it up. After hours of slacking, you justify it and say the boss owes you.

A conscience ignored is a crack in the soul. Enough cracks and much of you crumbles away.

Each repeat allows the cancer to advance and destroy. It’s a sad thing to be in that spot biblically speaking. 1 John 3:6 "No one who lives in [God] keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him."

Your first lie didn’t feel so good. It got easier and now no one trusts you. Your first drunken binge may have bothered you, but now you it’s easier. The danger? Your less reliable and that much closer to being an alchoholic. At first, you may have fought lustful thoughts. Now, you might welcome them. The danger? You could disgrace yourself and ruin a life or a family.

If God is in you, you’ll be uncomfortable with ignoring your conscience. You don’t want to shipwreck your faith.

Here’s another sign of conscience cancer: 2. I rarely confess or apologize. If I haven’t confessed or apologized to anyone in a long time. It raises a question. Either I’m that good, or my conscience is that bad.

You won’t be perfect, but you can be real. Your conscience tries to keep you real. Most of us don’t enjoy apologizing. Some call it eating crow and it tastes about that good. But once it’s done, the conscience usually feels much better. Next sign:

3. I’m hiding stuff. It could be your schedule, places you go, people you’re with. It could be in your business records or just in your mind. It could be under your sleeve. It could be under your bed, it could be on your hard drive.