4 Important Things About Personal Convictions We Need to Know
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Have you ever stopped to consider how the things you personally believe quietly shape everything you do?
They inform our decisions, relationships, and even how we feel about ourselves.
For a disciple of Jesus Christ, there are two ingredients that make up our personal beliefs:
- Biblical principles
- Personal convictions
When it comes to biblical principles, there is no nuance. The Bible says what it says, and God expects us to obey His Word.
However, personal convictions are much different, and today I want us to look at four important things that we must understand about personal convictions.
You see, how we handle our personal convictions can be a blessing to our brothers and sisters in Christ, or it can be divisive.
There are 4 important things about personal convictions that we need to know
1. Personal convictions can be temporary.
Personal convictions can be transient, in that God may call us to hold to a personal conviction for a season of time, and then remove that conviction.
God’s Word, however, never changes.
In Numbers 6, we see the requirements for a Nazarite vow. A Nazarite vow had a beginning and an end.
During that time, the person was not allowed to drink wine, grape juice, eat grapes, or even raisins. They couldn’t be near a dead person, and they could not cut their hair, or even trim it.
But when the vow had come to an end, they were free from these requirements.
There may be a time when God will ask you to give up a certain activity in order to free your heart so you can be more dedicated to Him.
This doesn’t mean that you will have to forfeit that activity forever; it just means that for a certain time, you need to give Him more room in your life.
Perhaps it has a stronger hold on your heart than it should, or perhaps it takes up time that God wants you to dedicate to Him.
2. Personal convictions are personal and not for everyone.
We see that the Nazarite vow wasn’t a vow that the entire nation of Israel took, and the requirements for the vow were not required of everyone, only of those who chose to take the vow.
We must be careful that if God has laid a certain conviction on our hearts that we don’t become judgmental of those who don’t hold that same conviction.
Yes, there are certain standards all believers should have; there are things the Word of God tells everyone to flee from, but in those areas where we can’t find chapter and verse, we must conclude that it is a personal conviction, and it should remain personal between God and us.
3. Personal convictions may be misunderstood by others.
I imagine that there must have been those who, despite knowing the requirements of a Nazarite vow, still felt hurt when one who had taken the vow refused to attend the funeral for their relative or parent.
There will be those who will know about your personal conviction and, on the surface, may even agree with your decision, but when it affects them personally would almost want you to violate it for them.
They may not understand the importance of your devotion to what God has told you.
My Personal Experience
Years ago, while in Bible college, I went with a group of students to see a movie.
You can know that if in the first five minutes of a movie it’s swearing at you or assaulting your eyes with immorality, that it’s not going to get any better, and I should have known that when it started badly, it wasn’t going to improve with time.
I should have left the theater, but I didn’t.
I just sat there with my head down for most of the movie, vowing not to make this same mistake again
A few weeks later, my friends asked if I wanted to go see another movie. When I turned them down, they asked why, and I replied, “I no longer wish to go to movie theaters.”
I knew my conviction wouldn’t be popular, but keeping my heart in right standing with God was more important.
Choosing to hold convictions that others may not understand is sometimes a hard and lonely road.
4. Violating a personal conviction is a sin.
“Others may, I cannot”.
It was a phrase our parents taught us as children, and we grew up rehearsing. I knew that there were certain standards our family kept that were meant only for us.
It wasn’t a sin that others didn’t keep those standards, but for us it was. Why?
When God asks us to abstain from a certain activity, and we vow to do that, we enter into a covenant of devotion to Him.
To violate that personal conviction is to disobey the Lord’s command and to break our vow to Him. That is sin.
Likewise, to pressure a fellow brother or sister to violate a personal conviction they hold is pressuring them to sin.
Has God been speaking to your heart to enter into a new level of devotion and consecration?
Is He calling you to raise your personal standards?
Is He asking you to give Him more time so you can draw nearer to Him?
Don’t turn a deaf ear to His voice.
Perhaps this is a season, perhaps this will be a lifelong commitment, as the Levites were consecrated for a lifetime.
One thing is certain: there is nothing on earth that can ever compare with the satisfaction of knowing that we are in the very center of God’s will for our lives.
Have you come to realize that you haven’t obeyed God by following through with the personal convictions He’s spoken to your heart?
Perhaps you’ve allowed others’ freedoms to lead you to violate personal convictions you used to hold.
We have a gracious God who is ready and willing to forgive our sins. All we need to do is humbly repent and ask Him to cleanse us.
Here are 10 Bible verses that encourage us to seek God’s face when we’ve fallen into sin.
Get these verses as a free set of Bible verse cards when you click here or on the image below.
These are great truths. I especially love #2. I think if we could all understand and embrace this one there would be less disagreement in the body. People are at different places in their walk with God and we have to be mindful of that fact. Great post!
I agree, there’s be a lot less disagreement in the body if we’d respect each others’ convictions and level of maturity.
I think #2 really stood out to me. They are personal not for everyone. I think sometimes our tendency is to elevate our personal convictions and impose them on others. As if we’re trying to be the Holy Spirit in their lives. This was a really interesting read and I liked the Nazarite comparison.
I’m reminded of this quote too.
“We must not seek to bind the consciences of other Believers with the private convictions that arise out of our personal walk with God. Even if you believe God has led you in developing those convictions, you still must not elevate them to the level of spiritual principles for everyone else to follow.” – Jerry Bridges
Yes – #2 is so important, because you are right – we do have a tendency to elevate our personal convictions to biblical standard. It’s hard sometimes to respect others’ convictions and level of maturity.
All 4 of these are right on target! I have done the same thing, instead of standing on my conviction I caved in! So easy to do but we/I must always stand for what I believe to be right. Your right if I do not it is sin!
Thank you, Lisa! Yes – it is easy to cave under pressure, isn’t it.
Oh Rosilind,
I understand so well about the wanting to be with friends YET, not being able to because what they were doing was wrong.
I am isolated here in Florida. Both my husband and I are. Mainly by choice. We choose not to hang around anyone who doesn’t bring anything to our “Table”. I couldn’t think of a better work than table.
Early on living here at the park, I was often invited to socialize with the other ladies there. Co- workers and or their wives/girlfriends.
I wanted to so badly until I heard what they were planning. Men Bashing. Drinking at the bar across from the park.
Danny and I have been to the bar. A Number of times. Usually in the afternoons when no one else was there. We’d turn on the Jukebox and dance slowly. We haven’t been in over a year. We will not go without the other.
I will not BASH Danny. I may share a vent about us but I am not doing it for fun or to harm him. I do it out of love. I do it to survive and get past the anger I often feel.
To get together with co-workers and putting down or telling personal stories about anyone is just wrong. To talk about someone they work with is WRONG.
Why BASH anyone?
I am so sorry that you are so isolated. That is hard, and yet sometimes we just have to cut the ties with those who threaten to drag us down. I like your standard for not bashing your husband. You are a real treasure to him. That is so rare today.
Thanks for sharing these are 4 simple truths about conviction. We as believers need to be very careful not to present things that are our personal convictions as necessary for all believers, and we need to be careful to respect the convictions of other brothers and sisters. Great topic!
Yes we do need to be so careful to respect each person’s conviction, and also level of maturity.