trbccoffeebreak

“I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience…”  1 Timothy 1:3 (NKJV)

These words were written by the Apostle Paul to young Timothy, his protégé in faith.

Most of us know the history of Paul, who was once called Saul of Tarsus, the terror of Christians in the first century. Paul was the equivalent to Christians of what Hamas is currently to the Jews. He was a man who felt he was doing God a favor by arresting men and women who professed faith in Jesus and dragging them off to jail. He was the one who held the cloak of Stephen to aid his cohorts while they stoned Stephen to death. He may have been involved in other murders of Christians, but Stephen was the only one mentioned in scripture.

Can you imagine the fear Christians felt at the news that Saul was coming to their area? But Saul met Jesus on the road to Damascus and had an immediate conversion experience. How he must have grieved when he realized how wrong he had been! He even said that the things he once valued, he later considered to be trash after his conversion experience. Now, years later, as he pens those words to Timothy, he declares himself to have a pure conscience, which could come only by the cleansing power of the Holy Spirit.

What about your past? Are there incidents in your past that cause you grief? Things you wish you had never done, or said, Things that caused pain for your family or other people you loved. Things that caused pain for a total stranger.

If you have committed your life to Jesus and your sins have been blotted out, you stand clean and without sin in God’s eyes. That’s hard for the human mind to accept. That’s a gift of grace beyond our ability to understand, but we know it’s true, because God says it is. Therefore, we, like Paul, can also serve Him with a clear conscience.

The enemy of your soul will try to bring up those things in your past to discourage you and make you feel guilty. There is no need to dwell on past sin unless there is some restitution the Lord is urging you to make. Deal with the restitution issue if possible, and enjoy serving the Lord with a clear conscience, as Paul did. He went on to write thirteen books of the Bible and planted churches all across Europe and Asia Minor, despite his black past as a persecutor of the church.

Think on this: If God can take a person like Saul and change him into the mighty apostle Paul in such a dramatic way, He can also use a person like me. And like you. And that, dear friends, is a cause for rejoicing!

“Heavenly Father, we thank You for the forgiveness of sin and ask You to supernaturally heal our thinking so we will know we are forgiven and can move forward victoriously in our service to You.”

For His Glory

Cherie Harbridge Williams
TRBC Women’s Life