Hebrews 10:21-22 (NET) and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in the assurance that faith brings, because we have had our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water.
Dorcas was very young when she accepted the Lord Jesus. But when she got to the university campus, she mingled with the wrong friends and backslide. During the period of her backsliding, she entered a relationship that almost led to marriage, but when she was restored back to the Lord she knew she could not continue in that sinful relationship. But it was so difficult for her to leave the relationship so she didn’t.
She found that as long as she was in that sinful relationship, she could not pray and commune with the Lord the way she needed to. She just found that there seemed to be this hindrance in her heart and no matter what she did, she couldn’t draw near to God the way she needed to. She kept confessing that her right standing with God was not because of her merit but because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, but she still found that she couldn’t draw near to the Lord in her heart.
When she discussed her frustration with her pastor, she discovered that it was because of a guilty conscience. She got her spiritual breakthrough when she ended the sinful relationship and freed her conscience.
From today’s Bible verse, we see that in order to draw near to God, we need to have a sincere heart that is full of assurance (which is based on faith in the righteousness of Jesus); we need to have our hearts free from a guilty conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Our bodies washed with pure water corresponds to water baptism which is an appeal to God for a good conscience (see 1 Peter 3:21). Baptism is God’s provision to deal with the generic human problem of a guilty conscience (even after true repentance). Never forget that the old sinful you died and was buried through baptism (see Romans 6:3-4).
Go into today remembering that as long as your conscience is clear before God, and you are not trusting in your merit but in the righteousness of Christ, you can approach God’s throne to obtain mercy and find grace to help you in time of need. Grace is what we need to fulfill our glorious destinies in God.
Prayer: Ask the Lord to help you walk totally free of a guilty conscience so that you can make the most of the access we have to Him.
—Abraham Damilola Arigi
Bible In One Year: Psalms 33-35
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