Conviction in Action à Your actions in life
back up what you say you believe. I have
thought about this a lot lately. Saying
it is one thing; a step in the right direction.
Doing it is another thing; a leap of faith. I saw a picture on facebook recently about if
we take a leap of faith, God will either catch us or He will teach us how to
fly. You won’t know if you don’t
leap. Either way, if we are leaping and
jumping and running after Him, He will not let us fall.
Conviction in Action à It can be so darn
difficult to do. Fear often stands in
the way. The “what ifs” can blind us and
back up fear. They can often stifle and
kill faith in action. If we say it,
should not our actions back it up? That
is the question that keeps on bugging me and just won’t leave me alone. Recently, some “what ifs” in life served as
my alarm clock in the wee hours of the morning… not a pleasant way to wake up
but God uses things in ways we could never imagine.
Convictions à Who is God in my life? What are the roles of each of the Three
Persons in One? How does that affect who
I am and could I define each of those roles separately and together if somebody
asked me to do so? I think I could find
and say what the Bible tells me, but do I believe it? A question we recently asked to our High
Schoolers at Youth Group: If you take
away all the “stuff”, who are you? If
you take away, Life Group, Church, all of the “Christian Activities” you
participate in, what is your relationship with Christ? What does that look like? Do my actions follow through on my
beliefs? Do I live that out? People are watching… closer than we often
realize. If people watch me, could they
figure out what I believe and who I live for?
Convictions then action à Follow through. It is so hard to do. We can say it… voice it… be heard… even argue
it. Do we follow through? Or are we more concerned with what others
will think? What is more important: what others think or what God thinks?
(Galatians 1:10) Are we more concerned
about hurting somebody? Will it not hurt
them more further down the road? Trust
would be broken… a bond of trust that grows over time. Healing could be more painful… the more you “lead
somebody on” the more painful the experience once honesty makes its presence
known. Forgiveness could be more
difficult.
Convictions à Where do they come from? All Scripture is God breathed (2 Timothy
3:16-17). The Spirit will convict us and
when He does, we will know. Do we act on
those convictions? The beauty is that
God does not force us to move but He gives us the choice to do so… to step out
in faith in Him. He has given the gift
of freedom… the freedom to choose… the freedom to follow… the freedom to act on
convictions. He leads… will we follow?
He will catch us if we fall… will we trust Him to do
so? There is a feeling that often comes
with conviction. I don’t really know how
to explain it but it is there and you know it when it is. It is kind of like “you know what you are
supposed to do but you don’t really want to do it because it is too hard.” It might be harder, but God is easy. Nothing is too hard for God. He is bigger.
He is stronger. He will catch us
when we leap… or He will teach us how to fly.
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"Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant."
~ Galatians 1:10 ~
"All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work."
~ 2 Timothy 3:16-17 ~
