Your Conscience Is Worth Listening To

A devotional for Tuesday

“But then David’s conscience began bothering him because he had cut Saul’s robe.”
1 Samuel 24:5 (NLT)

David hadn't killed Saul. He had only cut a piece from his robe. Compared to what he could have done, it probably seemed insignificant. But something inside David immediately told him he was moving in the wrong direction. So he listened. One of the gifts of walking closely with God is allowing the Holy Spirit to make us sensitive to the places where our hearts are drifting. Sometimes that conviction comes after a major mistake, but often it comes much earlier. It's the discomfort after the comment we shouldn't have made. It's the check in our spirit about how we're treating someone. It's the realization that our motives aren't quite as pure as we'd like them to be. We can defend those moments, minimize them, or allow God to use them to shape us. David chose the latter. A tender conscience isn't weakness; it's evidence that we're allowing God access to our hearts.

Question/Challenge:
Is there something your conscience has been bringing to your attention that you need to stop explaining away and bring before God?