What Is Biblical Conviction?

I believe when we become people who really live out areas of conviction that we will greatly impact the world. I believe that the world is truly looking for answers. I know there are some moral dilemmas in the world today, you can look at television and see that, but I believe we live in a world that is primed and ready to hear and receive the gospel. I believe that they want answers to their questions. I believe people are seeking for truth and are contemplating eternal things. They may go to the wrong areas, but what an opportunity for the church which has the precious truth of Christ. The problem is we cannot expect the world to be convinced of something we aren’t convinced of. They see it this way:

You people believe that there is a Heaven which is amazing and a Hell which is awful, but yet you never feel a burden to tell people about Jesus; if you really believed it wouldn’t you have more motivation to share Jesus with your non-Christian family and friends.

There is a tale told of that great English actor Macready. An eminent preacher once said to him: "I wish you would explain to me something." "Well, what is it? I don’t know that I can explain anything to a preacher." "What is the reason for the difference between you and me? You are appearing before crowds night after night with fiction, and the crowds come wherever you go. I am preaching the essential and unchangeable truth, and I am not getting any crowd at all." Macready’s answer was this: "This is quite simple. I can tell you the difference between us. I present my fiction as though it were truth; you present your truth as though it were fiction."

Perhaps a great problem in the church, and one reason why we are not reaching more people is because people in the church do not really believe what they say they believe.

One noted atheist said, “if I believed in Hell as you Christians do I would crawl on my hands and knees across burning deserts just to tell one person how to avoid going there.”

You people believe that people are called to high standards and breaking a command of God is sin, yet at the same time Christians are just as likely to be involved in pornography, divorce, or immorality. You Christians believe that some of the things going on in the world are wrong, you speak about the immorality of Hollywood, but yet you support the shows that promote that same immorality you speak of. You say abortion is awful and is murder, but yet you don’t speak out against it. If you really believed those things wouldn’t your actions be different?

Having real conviction about issues would result in unwavering beliefs. Beliefs that would not change with every new teaching. Actions that would not be influenced by the people we hung around, but rather actions and beliefs that stemmed from deep convictions that come from God himself.

One thing that really impresses me about the Apostle Paul is that he really believed what he taught. I think that every ounce of his being believed that Jesus was the Christ the Son of God, and that salvation was found in no one else. I really believed he thought that people outside of Christ were in eternal danger.