Pastor's Page

What is the value of developing and maintaining Christian convictions?

1. Godly convictions result in Christ like thinking and corresponding actions.

2. Convictions acted upon can be a means for protecting our families. It would be foolish to ignore the pressures of the world upon the family and make no serious effort to counteract them.

3. Convictions enable us to stand alone. Peer pressure affects all of us to some degree and comes in many forms. If we are going to please God, we need to be able to resist negative peer pressure.

4. Convictions enable us to successfully resist temptations from the world, the flesh and the devil and to avoid experiencing the reproofs of life caused by the consequences of our disobedience.

5. A consistent godly example can serve as a great encouragement to the people of God. We can’t expect people to act like Christ without first developing the convictions of Christ.

6. It is on the basis of convictions that important decisions should be made about how to live.

Convictions, unlike prejudices, are founded upon a thorough, objective investigation of facts.

Where do Christian convictions come from?

Conviction describes the work of the Holy Spirit by which the satanic blindness is lifted from men’s eyes and they are enabled to see themselves in God’s sight—guilty of death because of sin against a holy God and unable to save themselves. It is by conviction, brought about by the Spirit, in our conscience, that a sinner is brought to repentance. Our convictions about right and wrong are formed in our conscience. Everyone has convictions and a conscience (Acts 24:16; Heb. 10:22; 1 Pet. 3:16). The Spirit convicts and convinces. We should not confuse our con­science with the Spirit. Our conscience helps us differentiate between right and wrong so we can develop our convictions. If we don’t stand for something, we will most likely stand for any­thing. Convictions can be positive or negative. We can have negative convictions regarding our sin or we can have positive convictions regarding God’s truth. If we fail to obey our con­science—what we know to be true, we can’t grow spiritually. If we fail to obey an enlightened conscience, we can make a ship wreck of our faith (1 Tim. 1:19).

Next Week: What is the relationship of the Holy Spirit and our convictions?