God > Conscience

This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him everything we ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. (1 John 3:19-22)

God is greater than our conscience. Have you ever thought about that? All of those things your conscience tells you throughout the day, God is greater than those things. The feelings of doubt, the feelings that you aren't loving others, the feelings that you aren't living as Jesus did...those all come from your conscience and God is greater than that.

I know I have been in a places before where I had good motives and reasons behind what I was trying to do but I just kept on failing at living this way that I knew God wanted me to. Like when I tell myself I am going to love everyone and still let some of the feelings I have get in the way. It's easy to get down on yourself because you aren't following through with what you wanted to do. Remember this though, God is greater than your conscience. God knows my heart and understood the motives I had.

Same thing in your lives on a daily basis. You might have a goal of getting to know somebody better every day. You do well the first couple of days and are thrilled by the excitement and fulfillment of this process, but after a few more days you become tired and your daily goal because a goal you try to reach every couple of days. When something like that happens, it's easy to think that you are slacking off, but God remembers your motives and knows your heart and that is what matters.

Our conscience can be something that is hard to escape. How do we escape the gnawing accusations of ourconsicnecs? Not by ignoring them or rationalizing our behavior, but by setting our hearts on God's love. When we feel guilty, we should remind ourselves that God knows our motives as well as our actions, like I mentioned above. His voice of assurance is stronger than the accusing words of our conscience. If we are in Christ, he will not condemn us.

When we have a clear conscience, the power that we have is pretty amazing. With a clear conscience we can come to God without fear, and confident that your requests will be herd. John reaffirms Jesus' promise that whatever we ask for will be given to us. We will receive if we obey and do what pleases him because we will then be asking in line with God's will.