Dealing with a compromised conscience
1. Realize, with transparent honesty, which values of pagan culture you have embraced or tolerated, e.g., covetousness, ambition, lust, intellectual pride, to name a few. Have honest conversations in your home, with colleagues, in Sunday classes and Bible studies: Where are we compromising with the fallen culture? Admit and renounce these compromises and be willing to be accountable to others for lifestyle changes you are led to make.
2. Repent of lines crossed in your conscience. Allowing yourself to be exposed to sensuality, to indulge in materialism or to seek worldly prestige are typical traps. Boldly ask Jesus to put this area of your life on the cross and render it powerless (see Gal. 5: 24-25).
3. Regain the perspective of holiness, and recommit your heart to hunger first of all for a pleasing relationship with the Lord. Return to sections of Scripture that describe godly values; e.g., Proverbs, the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5), 1 Timothy and 1 Thessalonians. Read an inspiring biography of one of the great saints who led an exemplary life.
4. Reaffirm Kingdom values of servanthood, generosity, hospitality, honesty, and so on. Record your decisions in the margin of your Bible or in a journal. Set your course individually, as a couple or as a family to pursue holiness as a citizen of the kingdom of heaven.
