(Rom 14:23 NLT) But if you have doubts about whether or not you should eat something, you are sinning if you go ahead and do it. For you are not following your convictions. If you do anything you believe is not right, you are sinning.
Conviction is the agreement between a person’s soul and God about the line that should not be crossed. Unfortunately, our convictions are also influenced by people around us. As children this is good, for our parents guide us but as we become adults we too often spend time worrying about what the people at the office think, wondering how friends see us, and paying attention to family members who clearly think we should be doing things differently. All of this distracts us from the only opinion that matters – God’s. Yes Proverbs 22:6 tells us to “Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it.” But the training you receive as a child are as tools to a carpenter, as he becomes more skilled his tools become more focused so that the work he does becomes more detailed. We too develop the guidelines set before us as children by our parents, so that as an adult when we depend more and more upon God to lead us we might fulfill His master plan for our lives. For each one is to develop the relationship with God for themselves so that His Holy Spirit may guide them. What Paul said in Romans is to help us realize this so that we might stop trying to influence others to believe as we believe, for each person belongs to God and God alone is responsible for guiding them and that brings us back to the beginning – conviction is the agreement between a person’s soul and God. What are you doing to make sure your spirit can hear what He is saying?
