Without Wavering

Did you ever wake up in the morning feeling guilty about all your shortcomings: the harsh word you said yesterday, the laundry or bookwork that isn't done, the phone call you never made, the bad attitude you had toward your spouse or your parents? I was just listening to John Piper this morning, and he talked about doing that. He said that everyone with a conscience trying to live by righteousness in this sinful world, in this sinful state, feels like this if they lie there in bed long enough thinking their own thoughts. He said the conscience is like pain. When you do something that is going to hurt you, the conscience cries out. When you touch something that is going to burn you, your pain receptors cry out.

So the guilt is very real. It is not to be brushed off as of no account. But it is not to be wallowed in either. It is a reminder: You either need to be perfect or you need a Savior. And since you will never be perfect --until the day you die you will continue to mess up -- you desperately need a Savior.

If you continue to lie there and lament your imperfection, you are belittling what God has done. Speak the truth to yourself. Confess. Repent.

Your imperfection is your daily reminder that there are only two ways to have a clean conscience: to be perfect or to be sprinkled by the blood.

"Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience... Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful." (Hebrews 10:22)