Text- Galatians 1:10 – "For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? For if I were still pleasing men, I wouldn’t be a servant of Christ."
Your conviction is of very great importance in your walk with God as a Christian. You see, Christianity is not about your acts; it is first about your heart. Christianity not only involves doing the right things, but also doing them from the right perspective, and for the right reason.
That you are not “sinning” isn’t enough, the question is why aren’t you? If the opportunity shows up and pressure is mounted on you, is there any strong reason why you will you not give in?
We see the example of Joseph in Genesis 39. When Potiphar’s wife enticed him to sleep with her, he said “How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” (Gen. 39:9)
There are many reasons why people don’t ‘misbehave’. This depends on where their conviction and utmost sense of approval comes from. For Joseph, it was all about obeying God, not anything else. That was why His resolve did not fail when he was tempted by his master’s wife and when he was tried by imprisonment.
Yesterday, we say that some people’s conviction comes from the law and some draw their conviction from civility. Today, we will see yet another source where people draw their convictions from:
3. SCIENTIFIC FACTS
Science more or less deals with empirical evidence. Research is carried out and the results are evaluated to reach conclusions. Those conclusions are the reason why some people don’t misbehave
For example, science has found out that abstinence is the best prevention against STD. Science has also found out that the surest way to prevent unwanted pregnancy is abstinence. So then, there are many virgins walking on the streets who have remained virgins because they are scared of unwanted pregnancy and STDs.
They are behaving right, quite alright, but that’s simply because of scientific facts, not necessarily because they don’t want to sin against God.
Some youths will not do drugs because of the potential damaging effect it can have on their health, not necessarily because they want to please God with their lives. The danger with this is that the day such people find an alternative or are sufficiently convinced against these scientific facts, their morality will fly out of the window.
Let the word of God be your one and only standard. Let your conviction be drawn from the word of God. Then and only then can your moral uprightness stand the test of time, and God will truly be pleased with your life.
Beloved, evaluate your convictions and make adjustments where necessary.
PRAYER
Lord, if there is any area of my life where my convictions are wrong, help me to realign today so that in the face of trials and temptations, my resolve to serve and to please you will not fail.
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