What's the Right Thing to Do?
Bible Readings
Take a few minutes to read the Bible verses listed and ask the Holy Spirit to lead you in how this verse applies to you this week.
1 What if I could speak all languages of humans and even of angels? If I did not love others, I would be nothing more than a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 What if I could prophesy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge? And what if I had faith that moved mountains? I would be nothing, unless I loved others. 3 What if I gave away all that I owned and let myself be burned alive? I would gain nothing, unless I loved others. 4 Love is patient and kind, never jealous, boastful, proud, or 5 rude. Love isn't selfish or quick tempered. It doesn't keep a record of wrongs that others do. 6 Love rejoices in the truth, but not in evil. 7 Love is always supportive, loyal, hopeful, and trusting. 8 Love never fails! Everyone who prophesies will stop, and unknown languages will no longer be spoken. All that we know will be forgotten.
1 Corinthians 13:1-8
Memory Verse
1 Corinthians 13: 4-5
4 Love is patient and kind, never jealous, boastful, proud, or 5 rude. Love isn't selfish or quick tempered. It doesn't keep a record of wrongs that others do.
I don’t know about you, but I have kept many secrets in my life. Most of them were small and not important, but a few of these secrets were pretty big. They felt big because knowing them and keeping them secret ate at my conscience.
Your conscience is the voice in your head that tells you what is the right thing to do. It also nags at you when you do something wrong, or maybe even when you avoid doing something right. “This proves that the conscience is like a law written in the human heart. And it will show whether we are forgiven or condemned” (Romans 2:15). God gave each of us a conscience to help us remember to do what is right.
Confessing is admitting to someone that we did a wrong thing or didn’t do a right thing. It’s your conscience that prompts you to confess when you’ve kept something you did wrong a secret. One secret I kept for a long time was how bad I felt that I’d ignored a neighborhood friend when she first started coming to my school. I thought she wouldn’t fit in with my other friends. Afraid to do the right thing, I didn’t include her in my “group.” For years, my conscience made me feel bad about how I had treated her. I wasn’t able to get rid of that bad feeling until I confessed to her how badly I felt for what I’d done. By confessing to my friend, I gave her the chance to forgive me. And I forgave myself.
Prayer
Dear God, we praise and thank you for our conscience. We are especially glad when it pricks us to do the right thing. Help us today to listen to it and take action to do what is right. Amen.Related Resources
Gwen Veltema Klemm
Since graduating from Calvin University, Gwen Veltema Klemm has traveled the US and worked as a newspaper reporter, a technical writer for manufacturing and IT, and won a creative writing contest in 2019. She currently lives in Holland, Michigan warming her bones because winter is coming.