Every couple of years I have to replace my alarm clock. Why? Because I’m not a morning person. I don’t like to be woken by annoying sounds.
What happens is, as I try to stay asleep as long as possible during the alarm every morning, I gradually train myself to ignore that sound. Eventually, I get to the point where I can sleep through the alarm without it even bothering me anymore.
And that’s when it’s time for a new alarm clock, with a different sound to rouse me from my sleep.
That’s what it’s like when you and I harden our conscience. At first, you may be faced with temptation and in your mind there are alarms going off loud and clear, saying, “Don’t do it!”
But if you suppress that voice, it gets dimmer and dimmer until eventually you get to the point where it doesn’t even bother you anymore.
Something you couldn’t imagine yourself doing 6 months or a year ago is now something you don’t even feel bad about. The sad thing is, because the feelings of guilt are gone, many people delude themselves into thinking, “God’s accepted it”, when in reality all that has happened is they have become separated from God, and thier conscience has been hardened to the point that it no longer affects their choices.
The Bible describes this as “searing the conscience, as with a hot iron.” (1 Tim 4) It’s a scary place to be, because in that place, a person has lost sensitivity to holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.
What we want to have is a tender conscience, that hates sin and longs to do the will of God. When faced with temptations, a healthy tender conscience will convict us immediately of right and wrong, and will either keep us out of trouble, or send us directly to the foot of the cross when we have stepped out of bounds.
As Ray Comfort puts it, the conscience is like the referee who keeps us playing by the rules, but don’t be surprised if the referee walks off the field if his whistle is continually ignored.
How’s your conscience? Are there things in your life that you have made allowance for because you’ve suppressed or silenced the voice of your God-given conscience?
Confess it, forsake it, and awaken that sleeping conscience. It’s there for your good.