Living with a clear conscience.
Acts 24:16 So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man.
Having a clear conscience is no small matter. Carl Jung, founder of analytical psychology, understood the importance of having one. In Modern Man in Search of a Soul, he wrote, "Among all my patients in the second half of life… it is safe to say that every one of them feel ill because they had lost that which the living religions of every age have given to their followers and not one of them has really been healed who did not regain their religious outlook."
Jung did not espouse any orthodox religion, but he was among those who recognized the spiritual dimension of our pathology—like the late clinical psychiatrist, Karl Menninger. Menninger once said that if he could convince his institutionalized patients that their sins were forgiven, 75 percent would walk out of the ward the next day.
This irrepressible sense that we stand guilty before Someone, somehow, is symptomatic of a condition that, left unresolved, will manifest itself in some unhealthy thinking or behavior.
This is where the Gospel can make a huge difference. The Good News promises resolution of our guilt if we simply confess our sin before a holy and forgiving God. This is what Paul declared as a top priority in his life. If you are dealing with guilt in your soul today, take a moment and confess your sin before God. The promise of God is absolute, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness". In other words, if you have the courage to confess, God has the power to cleanse. Like the apostle Paul you can have a clear conscious today. That is the Good News we share to a world burdened with guilt and shame.
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