Conviction. When many of us hear this word we picture jail. Or if not, we see the judge pounding the gravel sentencing whoever to whatever time they have in jail. They have been convicted.
In the same manner, we Christians have been convited. Or are experiencing convitions. We are simply convicts for Christ.
Now, I know what you are saying. Convicts for Christ sounds like we are crazy people, but let me break it down for you.
When The Great Judge convicts his children of something, he is only disiplining them to put them on the right path way. God convicts his children to make them more Christ-like.
Let’s look at the verse below:
“Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined–and everyone undergoes discipline–then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all.” –Hebrews 12:7-8
And that leads me to this post’s topic. As you see up above, The Great Judge convicts and disiplines his children. After that, his children are to live up to their convictions.
What I mean is, all born again believers in Christ Jesus have convictions. Once God has chastized and told you not to do something, then we ought to be disiplined enough not to do it again. It can be as simple as not to drink alcohol, listen to a specific type of music, not having sex before marriage, or not using curse words. Every child of God has a conviction. And if you are reading this and you have not had one yet, trust me- you will.
Once you experience a conviction, you are to turn away from whatever it is and go in the way which God has called you too. Now, this may seem easy and fine– but it is not. Once Satan see’s you trying to turn away from what once hindered you, he’s going to do everything in his power to stop you. And as we are fully human, temptation arises.
It happened to me. As a kid who made a commitment to God at an early age, I had my first real conviction just last year. I had been doing well in disciplining myself with my conviction. Then the peer pressure hit.
Peer pressure is common for most teenagers, but when you are a Christian teenager- it seems that every arrow of destruction by Satan is pointing directly at you.
It’s not just for the teenager Child of God, but the adult Child of God too. Regardless of your age, when you belong to God- Satan wants you to fail at everything you do.
Satan wants you to turn away from your convictions and undisciplined yourself. One tactic he uses is peer pressure.
He did just that. Satan used peer pressure to try and get me to walk away from my conviction. I’ll admit, I was debating it. I debated heavily and seriously.
While all my peers were doing the same thing, I was not. Satan made me feel out of place. He made it so I did not fit it.
But after a day of serious thinking, God opened my eyes to the enemies schemes. In that moment, I did not care how much I did not fit in. I did not care what I would be labeled as, I was going to stick to my conviction.
Now, I did not just do this on my own, no. I had a person to look up too. A person who went through every temptation as I had.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” — Hebrews 12:1-3
The verses above show you who I looked up, and still look up, too. Jesus, the author and perfecter of my faith and your faith as well. You see, when I looked up to the hills from which came my help, Jesus was right there. As I looked over his convictions and saw how he handled them, I followed his example. As for you, reader, do the same. Because when you look at Jesus’ life and ministry, you see how he handled every situation with grace. This assures you that you too can handle things.
Jesus is and forever will be the best example to follow when trying to stick to convictions. If he can stick to his and endure the cross, how much more can we endure? And when we feel that we can not endure, know that God never gives us more than we can handle. We too will overcome just like Jesus.
So, in closing this blog post I just want us to embrace God’s discipline and also live up to our convictions, no matter what Satan throws at us. Oh, and remember Jesus’ as you go through, for he knows.
With love,
A Convict For Christ named Malaysia.
Chosen Grace 
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