There are many reasons that necessitate spending personal time with the Lord Jesus EVERY DAY in order to maintain a healthy Christian life. On the positive side, the Lord Jesus Christ is food to us. 1 Corinthians 10:2-3, "And all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank of a spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ." Christ portrays Himself as living water in John 4:10, 14, as the bread of life in John 6:35 and as the entire Passover in 1 Corinthians 5:6-8. He is food to us. Therefore, we need to spend time with Him to eat! Why do we eat? We eat to gain the source of supply for our life. Likewise, we eat Christ as our spiritual food to gain strength for our daily living.

Another reason to spend time before the Lord in His presence touches the negative side of our life related to sin. We are sinners by birth (Romans 5:12, 18-19) and therefore our nature is to sin. Once we are regenerated, born anew with the life of God, we still possess the old sin nature, causing us to fall short of the glory of God in our daily living. Sin breaks our fellowship with God. Sin causes us to be apart from God. After Adam and Eve partook of the forbidden tree, they no longer enjoyed the sweet fellowship with God in the garden of Eden. Instead they ran away to hide and to cover themselves with fig leaves. Eventually God came to them to restore the fellowship. Similarly, in order to restore fellowship with God we must learn to spend time with Him to take care of this negative issue out of our fallen nature.

Paul's living is described in 2 Corinthians 1:12, "For our boasting is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in singleness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and more abundantly toward you." His boast was in the testimony of his conscience. This may seem surprising to us because we might boast in our works or our successes, but certainly not in our failures. The foundation of Paul's experience in Christ was the root or base of his life: Whatever he did, whatever he said was a matter of conscience before God, and this was his daily exercise. The strength of Paul's life was his constant inward confidence that he was right with God and man and this became his boldness in his labor and ministry.

To have this same kind of experience and living demands a careful check of every aspect of our life according to the Lord's standard. We may care about our work, our labor, our growth in life before God, or how much we have accomplished in this life. Paul's example, however, shows us that what matters is our personal relationship with Jesus Christ through a healthy conscience.

If we could separate out the different parts of our human being, we could see that the conscience, as a part of the human spirit, is the "window" of the spirit into our soul with the mind, emotion and will. If the conscience (as a window) is clean, then whatever passes from our spirit will be transferred effectively into our soul. However, if our conscience is dirty, opaque or hardened, it creates a blockage between the spirit and the soul. This is extremely serious since the spirit is the organ in which we contact God Himself (John 3:6b; 4:24; Romans 8:16). If the spirit is blocked then our contact with the Lord is hindered or stopped and whatever we experience in our soul is not of the Spirit. This is why there is the need to keep our conscience void of offense before God and man (Acts 24:16) so that our spirit can transfer all things of the Lord to our soul.

Paul spoke of singleness and sincerity or simplicity of God in 2 Corinthians 1:12. This means that we must consider every relationship we have, everything that we do, and every motive in our heart before the Lord for His examination and cleansing. We should not try to overcome obstacles, sins or failures in and by ourselves, but we should learn to repent and confess our sins because He is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). Carefully consider your relationship with your spouse, your father, your mother, your sisters, your brothers, your friends, your coworkers, your boss, your children, your in-laws, etc. Surely we have many shortages, transgressions and improper thoughts, actions and motives toward one or more of these categories. The more we practice having a time with the Lord, the more these relationships will be in the light for the Lord's judging hand to expose us and adjust us. But all of this is not for condemnation's sake, but for the cleansing of our conscience so that we may maintain a pure and constant fellowship with God and man.

Hebrews 10:22 emphasizes the previous points in saying, "Let us come forward to the Holy of Holies with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water." Again, we see that the conscience is a crucial part of our spirit and must be kept clean and pure in order for us to have full assurance of faith to come forward to God.

How do we gain a clear conscience in order to maintain fellowship with God? Through confession before the Lord. We must set apart time in the Lord's presence to confess many matters: Many improper deeds, many improper attitudes and many improper motives. 1 John 1:7 says, "But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from every sin." To come to the Lord for fellowship or cleansing is to come into Him as light, which exposes, burns, shines and enlightens us that we may have a proper relationship before the Lord. Let's consider this matter in a practical way.

First of all, confession in Greek is "homologeo," meaning to speak the same thing. Therefore, confession is a matter of agreement. To confess to the Lord is to agree that He is right concerning us. For example, the Bible says that we are sinners and we have sinned. To confess is to practically agree with this. For instance, "Lord, I confess (agree) that I lost my temper with my wife and this is wrong in Your sight." Or "Lord, my speaking to my son was not of You. It was not kind, but condemning." Actually, confession is a means of repentance before the Lord. To repent is to have a change of mind. Many people think repentance and confession equals never doing that same sin again. As a result they stop confessing, stop repenting, and end up justifying behaviors or attitudes that the Bible condemns. Repentance is a change of mind from thinking that a certain behavior or attitude was okay or justified, to thinking that it is wrong or sinful based on the Lord's word. We turn to the Lord rather than to self-justification. We have a change of source … from ourselves as the source to God as our source.

The easiest matters to recognize and therefore, confess are deeds that we commit. What we do or do not do is an outward way to receive light en route to confessing our shortages, sins and failures. How do we treat our wives or husbands? How do we treat our children? What kinds of words proceed out of our mouths? Do we retaliate? Do we talk back to others? Do we justify ourselves when blamed? Do we properly honor those in authority over us? Do we work hard at our jobs recognizing that God can see us when others can't (Eph. 6:5-6)? Do we obey the laws of our country? Do we render to Caesar that which is Caesar's (taxes)? How did we react when that car cut in front of us? What was our response when someone else got the part in the play that we tried out for? … The list goes on and on.

Without confession of our deeds and actions, there will be a "build up," an accumulation of impurities on our conscience until a blockage forms in which God can no longer touch us or impact us in that particular area. It is tragic that some people come to a point of having a seared conscience as 1 Timothy 4:2 describes: "men who are branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron." Again we see the sobriety of this matter of keeping our conscience void of offense before God and men. Some indicators of an impure conscience are performing before others, being two-faced, having double standards, displaying lack of balance in regard to one item over another, etc. Because we have a sinful nature, we are always sinning. We may talk nicely about one person to their face, and then say something not so nice behind their back. We may forgive a friend who accidentally bumps into us, but we start a fight for the same action by an enemy. We may "go to church" and behave piously and go home and give "hell" to our children.

We are full of impurities even after we become saved in Christ. We must recognize the need to confess and condemn any and all impurities in our life and living. If we let any matter pass by us without it going through the judging fire of spending time before the Lord in confession, that matter will grow and grow. We must condemn any and all improper behavior and attitudes or eventually the sin will become worse and worse and we will lose the Lord's blessing. A classic example is a person who robs a bank. Surely they did not wake up one morning and for the first time have the thought and decision to go rob a bank. No. This sin grew and developed over time and due to a lack of confessing sin regarding stealing. That person may have stolen gum from a penny store. Later, they may have stolen fruit after school on the way home. Eventually, they steal more and more things and the need for stealing grows and grows.

Our spirit is shaped by the conscience. Therefore, if our conscience is impure, unclear or opaque, our spirit will be adversely affected. We must allow the Lord to unload us of any and all impurities, hindrances and trespasses in our behavior or attitudes. Attitude is much deeper than action. An action always has an attitude behind it, but an attitude may be undetected. For instance, I may speak well of a person, yet despise them in my heart. This is sin. Someone else may receive praise and I am inwardly jealous. I may do a lot of good works for others, but my motive is for self. How subtle sin can be within us (Romans 7:18, 20).

Again, the principle of growth applies to sin in our attitudes and motives. If we do not cut them off, they will continue to grow. As believers this becomes very serious, because sin will hinder and even cut off our fellowship with God and other believers. 1 John touches this matter in 1:6-10, "If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and are not practicing the truth; 7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from every sin. 8 If we say that we do not have sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us." There is no way to avoid the need for confession as long as we live in this fleshly body and bear the sin nature within us.

To adequately confess to the Lord all matters of behavior, attitude and motive, we need the Lord's word as our standard. We must use the Bible and the Spirit to examine ourselves. Otherwise, we surely will not maintain a clear conscience. Consider some of the works of the flesh which relate to attitude and motive as seen in Galatians 5:20: "And the works of the flesh are manifest, which are such things as fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 Idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, divisions, sects, 21 Envyings, bouts of drunkenness, carousings, and things like these, of which I tell you beforehand, even as I have said before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." a) enmity - anger and dislikes toward others. Paul checked with the Lord concerning every brother and sister he had contact with. B) strife - attacking others based on pent up feelings. Paul would not harbor feelings toward others, but confess them to the Lord. c) jealousy - we want what another has and therefore carry ill-feelings towards that person. d) factions - as young people we called them clichés in which people congregated and felt stronger in certain groups and treated others outside that group differently. e) divisions or sects - making a clear branching or delineation that the Lord Himself did not approve of, but based on our preference. f) envyings - inner hatred based on others being esteemed higher than us.

Saints, we are full of these items! Yet, we should not be overly discouraged or defeated by this fact. God is not. He actually doesn't mind us being full of sin, because He is our Savior and He desires us to depend on Him. The more we see ourselves as sinners, the more dependence on God we will have. We do not like getting exposed because we do not like being accused of being wrong. But in God's economy we are always wrong in order that Christ can become our righteousness in all things. If we learn to deal with the Lord over all things in our lives, then exposing will be no surprise to us. Rather, when we "get caught" it will only confirm what we have already discovered by being in the Lord's presence day after day.

Without a pure conscience we eventually become full of corruption. Christians are not exempt from this. We must present ourselves constantly to the Lord to be thoroughly dealt with in every detail, every deed, every motive, and every attitude. We must use the Bible as our standard. We must confess every sin and call it sin. Otherwise, Satan has the ground to affect our minds, our emotions, our will, our heart and even our spirit. We can be anxious rather than joyful. We can be fearful rather than bold. We can be fleshly rather than sanctified. Sin will corrupt us if unchecked. Confession purifies us just as taking a shower every day cleanses our physical bodies. We should learn to confess all the time: "Lord, I don't trust you in the matter of finances. I'm sorry for this. Please cleanse me." This process never ends until we are fully with the Lord in eternity.