2 Timothy 1:3 I thank God Whom I worship with a pure conscience, in the spirit of my fathers, when without ceasing I remember you night and day in my prayers.

Paul writes to Timothy and expresses that he can worship God with a pure conscience. Paul’s background was far from being clean. Paul was Christianity’s biggest enemy by literally killing those who proclaimed the name of Jesus. Paul was a murderer and yet, he states, he worships God with a pure conscience. How can this be? Paul understood that the blood of Jesus allowed him to be forgiven from everything and it cleansed his conscience from all dead works (Ephesians 1:7; Hebrews 9:14).

If Paul, with his background, can understand this forgiveness, so can we. The enemy will attempt to make us feel guilty or shameful about our past. That guilt, causes us to partially worship God or in some cases, not worship God at all. That shame, will have us stay home from church because we don’t want to appear “hypocritical.” When those thoughts arise, we have to rebuke them and receive our forgiveness. This is a spiritual fight, so we may have to receive our forgiveness several times a day.

Continue to receive the forgiveness of God and worship God with a pure conscience.