CLING TO YOUR FAITH IN CHRIST

FRIDAY 2 JULY 2021

To cling to your faith is to continually build yourself up in the faith and keep pressing to grow spiritually. It is a path to spiritual development and it involves studying God's Word and spending quality fellowship time with the Holy Spirit so that we know and understand more of God's will and be equipped for every good work.

Reference: 1 Timothy 1:19 New Living Translation (NLT) "Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked."

If we are urged to hold on to our faith and keep a clear conscience, it means that our faith which is based on the glorious message of the gospel can come under attack by worldly concerns, forces of evil and corrupting influences of this world. Our faith is based on the saving truth of God's Word. Since we did not earn this faith by our own efforts, we must therefore hold on to it in Christ with a clear conscience. Why is our conscience important? Its because some people have made a mess of their faith because they didn't listen to their consciences.

Some have also deliberately violated their consciences. To deliberately violate one's conscience means that a person (Christian) has become openly at variance with what they know to be the truth, without feeling concerned. With a conscience that defiles them, instead of condemning them, they find it difficult to have confidence in God and demonstrate their faith. Now too much attention is given to things that are passing or fading away, rather than the things of the Spirit. They no longer have or experience the deep assurance of God's grace and love for them. This is usually because their consciences have been awakened to the degrading desires and pleasures of this life.

You can tell that a Christian has sold their conscience if they constantly put worldly desires and issues above walking in the truth. They have violated their conscience because of too much love for the pleasures of the world. They deliberately prefer to have worldly entertainment above spiritual upliftment. If you put the enticements of this world above the affections of the Lord, you have violated your conscience. This violation will lead to your faith being shipwrecked over time.

If your main focus is conforming to the newest trend in modern Christianity that won't bother you or confront you or correct you when you are going in the wrong direction, then you have violated your conscience. If your crucial motivation for serving in the house of God is so that people may see your good works and proclaim, "Oh what a wonderful Christian", you are gradually drifting from keeping the faith and a good conscience.

As a born again Christian, you cannot afford to continue living such a life, in the name of serving God. Simply put, we cannot afford to sell our conscience. Your faith in Christ and a good conscience are too dear to God to suffer shipwreck. If any Christian already has a troubled conscience, God, through His grace and the shed blood of His dear Son, Jesus Christ, offers to clear their conscience and restore the original and perfect joy of their salvation. All they need to do is to approach the throne of grace, just as Hebrews 4:16 (NIV) reads, "Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need."

Ephesians 3:12 (NIV) also reads, "In Him and through faith in Him we may enter God's presence with boldness and confidence." Therefore, as you approach His presence with boldness and confidence, may you obtain mercy and find grace to help in such situation, thereby experiencing the joy that overflows from a such heart, clinging to your faith in Christ with clear conscience again and again. Shalom!

Scripture Reading - 1 Timothy 1:5; Titus 1:9; 1 Timothy 3:9; Galatians 1:6-7.

Exuberant Declaration: Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of my faith, through whom I have access by faith into the grace wherein I stand. With clear conscience, I have my faith rooted on a firm foundation and the substance of the glorious gospel, expressing my thankfulness for the consistency of my spiritual growth in Christ and the fervour of the Spirit. Praise God!