Chastened Conscience
“ O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your wrath, Nor chasten me in Your hot displeasure! For Your arrows pierce me deeply, And Your hand presses me down. ” Psalms 38:1-2 NKJV Chastened conscience is preferable to a shattered conscience, especially for children who appreciate their father’s love and affection. Unlike the conscience of the psalmist, Balaam the son of Beor represented a conscience shattered by the Lord’s hot displeasure. While he once wished “ Let me die the death of the righteous, And let my end be like his! ” (Numbers 23:10), he never walked his talk and was finally destroyed by his greed and unrighteousness. When a believer’s conscience is pierced by the arrows of chastening, delays, and disappointment, it is always rewardable if he feels the Lord’s presence and sees His love in the rebuke. And like it was for Balaam and many others, anyone who rejects chastening in the Father’s rebuke is prepared to receive the shattering in the Father’s retribution. At ...