Post 161B

Thanksgiving is coming up, and I was thinking "what am I thankful for?" I though of a clear conscience, and it comes from the conviction of the Lord. I am very thankful for His conviction.

Recently I had a furnace job where I found an apparent crack in a heat exchanger. Which means it will emit carbon monoxide when it gets bad enough, so I recommended that the homeowner have us replace her furnace. It turned out the furnace was under insurance so it had to be checked by the insurance company. The insurance man could not find a crack and said there was none. So things were starting to make me look pretty bad. I was talking with the homeowner on the phone and she asked me if I had checked for carbon monoxide. I thought "this will make me look really bad if I tell her I didn't check". So I told her I did, but actually I didn't. Basically I lied. But I didn't think about it that way, I stretched things and tried to rationalize it, and thought "checking for cracks is checking for carbon monoxide, cracks are what causes it". But there was this nagging thought (conviction) of "that was a lie". I thought it would just go away in a little bit, but it didn't. It just kept nagging at me. So that evening when it got really bad I finally buckled down and thought and prayed about it. I admitted it was the Lord convicting me, and that I had sinned. So I agreed to the Lord that I would tell her I had not been truthful and ask her forgiveness. Whew that took a load off my mind. I knew it would be hard to tell her, but that would be nothing compared to keeping it in. It would be well worth it. So I ended up telling her about it and asking forgiveness.

Oh it is wonderful to have a clear conscience, I think it's only evident just how good it is after clearing it. It's so great to know I did the right thing! If I hadn't, that sin I was rationalizing would be like me plugging my ears to God, I would not hear him. I would not be close to Him, not because He had moved but because I was blocking Him out. God is so good! Oh, thank Him for conviction! Don't run from it. Without conviction the enormous blessing of a clear conscience would never come.

Listen to this song, it's a good one for this. "A broken and a contrite heart oh God thou wilt not despise".