Follow Through

"Hold onto faith and a good conscience, unlike those who, ignoring conscience, have finally wrecked their faith." - 1st Timothy 1:19

Timothy was a young adult called by God to serve Him in the early church, and Paul was his mentor. Knowing that Timothy was young, Paul was careful with him, trying to guide him on a firm course so that he would not get distracted by the world. His most important piece of advice to Timothy was to hold firm to faith and listen to his conscience. Paul told him to keep his eyes on the prize, and it's advice that we, as young people, need to listen to.

We need to pay attention to our conscience, which is God's way of speaking to us. From an early age our conscience tells us if something is right or wrong without our parents or anyone else telling us. We feel it in our gut when we've done something wrong, even before we see the outcome. When we don't listen to that small voice of God, it becomes weaker and weaker until we're involved in things that aren't right, but they've become normal to us. Think of people you know who participate in risky behavior as if it were no big deal. This is what listening to our conscience frees us from. But when we let small things go by, we fall into bigger mistakes. Take Paul's advice to Timothy and always hold firm to what you know is right, to the voice of God speaking within you. If this were easy, I wouldn't be writing all the time to encourage, but since it is difficult, look within you and try to listen to what you know is true and follow it through until the end.

Today's Prayer:
Father, I find myself in difficult situations and sometimes what I know I shouldn't do is the easier path to follow. Following You and doing what is right is sometimes very hard. Please give me the conviction to follow through on what my conscience tells me to do. In Jesus' Name we pray, amen.