Reflections

Conscience - A Compass

Both prayer and daily Bible reading  are essential to the continuance of God's abundant life in our beings. But there is also a third item of priority - the development of a sensitive conscience. Conscience is the capacity within us to decide what is right and what is wrong, but it decides is largely determined by the training it has received. Some people have little or no conscience because their parents did not take the time or trouble to teach  or train them, whilst others have an oversensitive conscience  because their parents made excessive demands upon them. Paul killed people in all good conscience until his conscience was brought into contact with Jesus Christ and then things changed dramatically. Someone said, "We make our conscience and then our conscience makes us."

When we come into the Christian life we bring with us a conscience that was trained  by parents and those connected with us in the early stages of our development. We need, however, to surrender our consciences to the Holy Spirit so that He can refocus them in line with His principles. If conscience approves and disapproves within the framework of what it is taught, then it must be our constant aim to subject it daily to the standards of God's Word so that it can be kept transparent, perfectly balanced and clean. A truly  Christian conscience is one of the highest priorities in Christian living and without it the abundant life which flows in our beings will be neutralised and invalidated to a great degree.

Reflections

Recognising God's Voice 

We turn to the question of how to develop the art of the listening side of prayer which is of great importance and value to every Christian. As the point I want to make has been put most expertly by Mrs Herman in her book Creative power, I can do no better than to quote her deeply  expressive comments: 

"The alert and courageous soul  making its first venture upon the spiritual life is like a wireless operator on his trial trip in the Pacific. At the mercy of a myriad electrical whispers, the novice at the receiver does not know what to think. And then, just as his ear has begun to get adjusted to  the weird babel of crossing sounds, there comes a remote and thrilling whisper that plucks at his taut nerves.... It is the expected message and he nearly missed it. The Christian who waits in silence before God must learn to disentangle the voice of God from the net of other voices-the ghostly whisperings of the subconscious self, the luring voices of the world, the hindering voices of misguided friendship, the clamour of personal ambition and vanity, the murmur of self will, and the song of unbridled imagination."

We learn to listen to God's voice in the same way as we learn any other art - by practice. Begin today to wait before God with your heart and mind fully open to Him. Don't be discouraged if for a few days  (or even weeks) all you hear is voices from your subconscious, or the muffled sound traffic in the distance. The more you practice the more perfect will become the art, and quietly, almost without realising it, you will one day recognise your Master's Voice.

Reflections

Keep A Daily Quiet Time

If we are to know the strengthening power of prayer  in our daily life and experience, then we must make time to have moments of quiet when we can gain the poise and power that will enable us to meet every problem head on. Those who say they can live in a state of prayer without definite times of prayer, will eventually find themselves without both.

In my counselling experiences I have often found that people who complain of spiritual dryness and barrenness do so because they have neglected the place of prayer. One counsellor asked a couple who were living defeated Christian lives if they kept the Quiet Time; and the naive reply was given, "Yes, my husband and I sit and smoke in the quiet, half an hour after breakfast". Those sincere but defeated souls found release and victory when they set up a real Quiet Time, in which they took in the resources of the Living God, instead of the pitiable substitute of nicotine. Breathing the Holy Spirit into your spiritual lungs gives you a pick-you-up with no let- you-down. James Russel Lowell says.

If the chosen soul could never be alone,

In deep mid-silence, open-doored to God

No greatness ever had been dreamed or done;...

The nurse of full grown souls is solitude.

 A watch was running slow and the watchmaker asked the owner when he wound it. When told "at night", he said, "Wind it in the morning. Give it the fresh spring at the most difficult part of the day when you are moving about." If the best Man who ever lived needed to pray in the early part of the day then so must you.

              A very blessed New Year to all of you in the Name of Jesus.