Pursuit of Happiness - Part 1

So here we go.
Been making a list for the last couple of days of things that influence our happiness.
Going to go through them in no particular order...

Here is one - CLEAR CONSCIENCE

Nothing seems to steal any chance of happiness than a guilty conscience.
That feeling where you know you have something to feel guilty about.

When I was 8 my parents returned from an overseas trip that lasted some months.
They traveled right around the world including a country called Italy.
From wherever they went they brought home little souvenirs of the journey including money.
As an 8 year old I was fascinated by the 10,000 lira note they showed us. To me I could not understand that it was worth only a few dollars in New Zealand currency. I believed it was worth $10,000. More money than I had ever imagined.
One day I was showing it off to some kids and ended up wrestling with it...you can imagine what happens next!
Yes, we ripped it!!!
I was so upset. I thought I had ripped and destroyed $10,000 dollars.
So I hid the money and tried to pretend it never happened.

That night I could not sleep. My mum kept asking me what was wrong, but I could not bring myself to tell her.
In fact many years went by before I did anything about my crime.
I lived with this horrible feeling in my gut for so long. Before I knew it was called a conscience.
Eventually I confessed and found out how silly I had been.
But I learnt a valuable lesson...to listen to my
conscience and not to pretend it is not there. Otherwise I just hurt myself.

Check out some scriptures on this thing...

Hebrews 10:22 niv
let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

Hebrews 9:14 niv
How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

Here is some great advice...

Acts 3:19 niv
Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord

If you have a guilty conscience that is robbing you of happiness...you can do a couple of things.
One, sort it sort. Confess. Restore. Fix. Whatever you can do to make things right.
Two, come to God and let him finish the work to your conscience.

Something to think about...