Our Family Time with God

November 20, 2009

BUT I FEEL SO

GUILTY!

Have you ever experienced a guilty conscience? Have you felt so guilty that you lay awake at night thinking about it? You lost your joy, and you wanted to crawl into a hole and forget about everything and everyone.

What happened to you ? You suffered from a guilty and violated conscience. You did something wrong, and your conscience--God's alarm system--blared inside you like a fire alarm.

How do we get a clear conscience? How did King David get a clear conscience? Notice what he prayed to God. "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness....Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me....Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit." ( Psalm 51:7-8a, 10, 12 ).

What caused David to lose his joy and gladness? What caused him to have a dirty heart and a bad spirit? One thing--sin. He had disobeyed God. He had sinned with Bathsheba and had not properly dealt with his sin before God.

Now, after a year of suffering with a guilty conscience, David took the proper steps to gain a clear conscience. Notice what he prayed. "For I acknowledge my transgressions" ( Ps. 51:3a ). David called sin what it is; he was honest before God. "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight" ( v. 4a ).

David knew that the one he had offended the most was God. He wanted to make sure things were right between him and God. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" ( 1 John 1:9 ).

1. What must I do when I sin?

2. What is God's response to my confession?

ASSIGNMENT: Read and discuss the following verses Psalm 51:3-12; 1 John 1:9.

--Craig M. Scott--