A Prayer For A Clear Conscience (Today's reading 2 Timothy 1:3 Supporting scripture Acts 7:54-8:2, Acts 9:1-22 and Romans 3:23)
Lord, I have encountered many people recently who are suffering. Not people suffering from illness or ailment of the body but of the spirit and of the heart. So many are gripped by fear, anxiety, and depression due to things from their past. Lord, I have been hearing story after story of regret, guilt, shame, self disappointment, and failure that people are carrying around. What a heavy burden it is to carry, a burden that eventually becomes more than one can bare and weighs the carrier down till they can no longer keep going as they had or should. Lord, I read Paul's words to Timothy but I can't help but remember that Paul was a man with a past. He persecuted the early believers and even partook in the killing of one of your own by overseeing and condoning it. He was a man who was guilty of past offenses, who could, and some might argue should, by all means live with regret. Yet, when Paul writes to Timothy he specifically states that he is a man who serves God with a clear conscience. Paul is a man who, despite his past, lived in the freedom of a clear conscience. Lord there is only one way Paul could write this and live this and that is because of his faith, his experience and encounter with the savior he once stood in opposition of. Paul didn't just experience your presence that day on the road to Damascus but he experienced your love, forgiveness, mercy, and grace and he let it wash over him, he let it cleans him from the burden he could have carried. I know Lord that you did not live, die, and rise again for your forgiveness to be mere words but for your life, death and resurrection to break the chains of regret, shame, guilt, and failure. Actions can have consequences but your blood was shed to lift off the burden of guilt and regret. We can not show, we can not proclaim your goodness and grace if we are still stuck in regret and not living in the freedom the cross brought. Lord, it is my prayer that all who are suffering in spirit and heart from past burdens would have an encounter, an experience with you, the savior, that allows you to be more than just words on a page but to have a personal experience of the heart and mind that frees them from a burden that you willing took in their place on the cross. Lord, I also pray for those of us who encounter the many who carry the burden of past, help us Lord to not judge, to not condemn, to not encourage them to carry this burden but to love them as you have loved us. Help us to remember and remind others that one can be sorry and yet still experience freedom from the burden of regret. Help us to lead those in need to the cross and walk with them carrying the burden along side them till they come to see you and experience you completely, in freedom of spirit and heart. Lord, it is with a clear conscience that we should all live and serve. Help us to remember that does not mean living a perfect life because if that were the case none of us would be free as none of us is perfect, we have all fallen short of the glory, the perfection of God. Help us to remember that your mercy and grace is what ushers forgiveness, is what free us from our pasts, and opens up our hearts to live each today in the freedom you call us to. Lord, may we each live in the freedom of the cross and be a light and guide for those who need to be freed.
AMEN
If you know someone who suffers from regret, shame, guilt, failure, etc. consider sharing the following song with them. It's called Freedom Hymn. Christ needs to be the freedom song of every heart and it is only through Him that true freedom can be experienced.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3xzHSTaATI
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