Following your convictions ...

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It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything else if it might cause another believer to stumble. You may believe there’s nothing wrong with what you are doing, but keep it between yourself and God. Blessed are those who don’t feel guilty for doing something they have decided is right. 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. -Romans 14:21-23 NLT

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When I hear the word conviction I think of being fully convinced about something. It reminds me of this great Charles Hodge quote that my blogging friend Mike shared this week: "Christianity is equally opposed to superstition and rationalism. The one is faith without appropriate evidence, the other refuses to believe what it does not understand, in spite of evidence which should command belief." Having a conviction does not require superstition or rationalization.

I drank a lot when Christ first came into my life - part of my conversion was a call to abstain. For thirty years after that day I drank no alcohol. Then I began to gradually sense a liberty to occasionally drink a glass of wine. That was about eight years ago and it has been a joy since then to occasionally taste of the fruit of the vine. My point is that convictions often change and we would do well to not only follow our own but to not judge the convictions of others.

Help us Lord to discern the differences between superstitions, rationalizations and convictions.

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