John writes in 1 John 3:19-22, "This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we we obey his commands and do what pleases him."
Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 that we are "body, soul and spirit."
Within those three spheres of our existence, we have three boundary keepers in our lives.
My body is the "temple of the Holy Spirit" and I am responsible to listen to what my body tells me. If I overeat, I can get fat and even die from heart disease and high blood pressure.
I need to listen to what my physical body tells me. Slow down. Exercise more.
My spirit contains the presence of God and I am responsible to listen to what His Holy Spirit tells me. Through conviction. The Holy Spirit will never condemn you (or put you down) but He will convict you (to draw you closer to God).
My soul (emotions, mind and will) is dictated by my conscience and I am responsible to listen to my conscience as long as it is in sync with God's spirit and direction for my life.
In other words, my conscience can be "out of whack" and because of a desire to please God out of works or worse yet, perfectionism, I can become consumed with pleasing God through keeping a set of rules.
Perfectionism will kill every relationship you have in life.
Many times we are harder on ourselves than God is. We set the bar so high, that not even the Apostle Paul himself could jump over.
John writes, "For God is greater than our hearts," meaning that an oversensitive hyper-active conscience can be quieted by the knowledge that God himself has declared active love to be an evidence of our walk with Him.
Even when I am walking through self-imposed condemnation (or the condemnation of the enemy) I can receive assurance that I am a child of God from the objective test of God's word - and the presence of the Holy Spirit in my life.
There is, no condemnation to those in Jesus (Romans 8:1).
So - walk in freedom today. Let your conscience be your guide, but under the leadership of the Holy Spirit and God's Word.
Just some thoughts for a Tuesday.
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