Obedience and sin impacts our mental state

Practicing obedience leads to a positive mental state. When we practice what is right our conscience is at peace and even feels good about pleasing the Lord and blessing others. When we practice sin our conscience disturbs us and we are not settled mentally. Our mental state drops lower and we can feel bad the we havehurt the Lord and have done harm to our fellow man.

The lifestyle we practice also effects our expectations. When we practice obedience we develop a positive expectation of God being with us, blessings pursuing us here on earth and an eager confidence that we will be with God forever after we die (Psalm 23). When we practice sin we can begin to doubt that God is with us. Instead of having an expectation of blessings we grow concerned that painful discipline will head our way. We can begin to doubt that we are saved and that Heaven will be our future home.

The knowledge that our mental state can be raised due to obedience or lowered due to disobedience gives us yet one more good reason to walk in God's ways.