I think that a lot of the time we would all love to pretend that we don’t know how to do the right thing. If doing the right thing is too confusing or difficult, well then we have some substantial excuses. The reality that many don’t want to face is that we generally know what we “should” do….we just don’t always want to do it. I’m working through the 70 resolutions of Jonathan Edwards and resolution 39 says…

Resolved, Never to do any thing, of which I so much question the lawfulness, as that I intend, at the same time, to consider and examine afterwards, whether it be lawful or not; unless I as much question the lawfulness of the omission.

Edwards clearly wanted to do the right thing in the moment and obey his conscience. He didn’t want to spend his time rationalizing and making excuses. He didn’t want to live life conscience-stricken always wishing he had made better choices. Our conscience is a very powerful force let alone the voice of the Holy Spirit inside of us as believers. A lot of people don’t want to accept responsibility and like to pretend they are totally clueless as to what to do.

Life gets a lot more simple when we all decide to face the elephant in the room. We know what we should do and we don’t always want to do it. Then we can begin having the liberating conversation about why we don’t want to do it. This is where true and lasting freedom can come in.

Do you walk around pretending that you have no idea what God wants while all the while secretly knowing? I’ve done this before and sometimes still do it. We would all be far better off if we just came clean and acknowledged the times that we knew the will of God and simply didn’t want to obey it.