Conviction of Faith

I’ve been praying over this passage for two weeks. Every word hammered me, testing every facet of who I am. I’m questioning. I’m playing rhetorical-scenario-mind-games with myself.

What does it mean to truly believe in anything?

What does conviction truly mean?

What does it mean to “truly believe” in Jesus?

What is conviction of faith?

Conviction is a firm belief. Belief is a conviction in the truth. Truth is a verifiable indisputable fact. Faith is the belief and loyalty in God. Do you see how conviction, belief, truth, and faith are intertwined?

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

I don’t see any loopholes here. The I AM said, “I AM the truth.”

But our society has made it easy and accommodating to vacillate between truth, half-truth, and no-truth to the point that I wonder if anyone truly knows the truth. The world sells sweet tonic-talk with false messages and promises. The culture pushes hard against believers, mixing faith based words of love to sugarcoat a multitude of offenses. There seems to be no moral truths. This dilemma has caused a rift within us. Truth is the force that stabilizes and centers us. It keeps us focused.

When we begin to doubt, we sway, not knowing right from wrong or east from west. And it affects everything about us. Our emotions. Our physical health. Our mental wholeness. Our self-worth. It feels as if we are a yoyo, going up and down in our convictions with no time to process their implications.

Do you remember the movie, A Few Good Men, and the scene where Colonel Jessep (Jack Nicholson) shouted:

That’s what mainstream culture wants us to think. You can’t handle the truth; so, how about I tell you what it is. The problem is their truth is coming at us from all directions and changing as quickly as it’s delivered. Without a strong conviction of the truth, these words uproot us, begging us to wonder if we can handle the truth.

What Jessep handed the young lawyer was the truth to many-“I don’t want  to handle the truth”. Being duped seems to be the new norm. It’s easier to let others think for you and decide what truth and conviction and faith and belief actually are. Maybe it’s easier to live in a preconceived world-bubble in order to keep life neat and orderly because the truth, the real truth, might be more than they can handle.

There’s a little tucked away verse that is appropriate here.

                        “Later, a great many people from the Gerasene countryside got together

                        and asked Jesus to leave – too much change, too fast, and they were

                        scared.” Luke 8:37 (MSG)

Scared? Some translations use the word “fear” Is it fear that draws us away from the truth? Fear of reprisal, maybe persecution. Because that’s what the Bible says, “In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” (2 Timothy 3:12)

Truth is the core of who we are. We yearn for it. Truth is the anchor and stabilizing force in our life.

I finally stopped assaulting myself over these questions.. I am a student of the Bible. Getting to know God is my passion. Maybe my question is not if I can handle the truth, but do I know the Truth. That’s the only way I am going to be able to discern the real thing from a falsehood. If I don’t know God’s Word, then those half-truths circulating will begin to etch away at my conviction of belief. My faith.

It takes courage to stand firm on who God is and who God says we are. And to stand firm is what conviction means. If your conviction is not solid, you will be like chaff that blows away in the wind. You will be vulnerable to the distortion of the truth and Satanic attacks. My husband always says, “You’d better stand firm on your beliefs or you’ll fall for anything!” He’s got that right!

There are so many great men in the Bible who resolved not to defile themselves, like Daniel, who stood firm in his conviction to live his faith out by following God and biblical principles. These principles are found in scripture. The more you read the Bible, the more you will see God delivering blessings upon blessings upon His faithful followers.

Think about your conviction of faith.

            Do you believe God is who He says He is?

            Do you believe God will do what He says He will do?

            Do you believe you are who God says you are?

What does the Bible say about these things? Take these treasures to heart. Stand firm. We are in a spiritual battle. Be ready and be prepared. Stand tall in the face of temptation and compromise. Keep God’s Word at the forefront of your being.

To God be all glory!

Faith:

Faith “is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1)

            I love Martin Luther King, Jr’s quote, “Faith is taking the first step when you don’t see the whole staircase.”

            All I can think of when I read this quote is trying to make it up the staircase in the Currituck Lighthouse. Being slightly claustrophobic, it’s all I can do to put one foot in front of the other. If someone is coming up close behind me, I panic. There’s nowhere to go! There’s nothing to hang onto. The wall is slick as glass. If you lose your footing, there’s no place to go but down!

            Several years ago, my granddaughter would hear none of my whining about not going up to the top of the lighthouse. She literally pushed me up the first step and became my encourager with each step I took after that. “You can do it, Nana!”

            I thought I was doing really well. I finally took my eyes off my feet and actually looked ahead. Then this rotund man decided I was going too slow and squeezed past me, causing me to almost lose my balance. It was not a pretty sight. But my granddaughter put her hand on my back and said, “I’ve got you, Nana!”

            My granddaughter’s hand became a physical presence of reassurance and faith that I could make it up those steep, winding, narrow steps. Plus I knew her, trusted her. Our relationship and love gave me extra comfort.

            But what about God? How do I establish faith in an unseen God?

            Trust me, I’ve struggled with this. Wondering. Questioning. When I shared my doubts with a sweet, elderly woman in my church, she said, “Read the Bible.” Read the Bible? I left thinking the woman was a simpleton; she hadn’t helped me at all. Just read the Bible?

            I picked at verses and chapters, nothing made sense. I went back to my church friend and announced, “I’m so confused. Where do I begin?” She looked at me as if I had two horns and pronounced, “Read John! Get to know your Savior.” I didn’t question her.

            Her advice began my daily journey into discovering faith. Let me confess, crawling into the Bible wasn’t easy. It was often hard to digest, being firm, bold, and relentless. Then one day, I ran across Romans 10:17. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”

            I remembered my friend’s words. She didn’t tell me what faith was. She sent me to the source to find it for myself. That’s when I declared her to be a spiritual genius. Well, in my limited knowledge of geniuses, she was a genius!

            “To one who has faith no explanation is necessary, to one without faith, no explanation is possible.” (Thomas Aquinas)

            Faith is too grand to be fully explained. It is a way of life, an awakening to something more than we can ever become. Faith comes through a relationship with Jesus.

            Last summer, I sat staring up at the lookout area on top of Currituck Lighthouse. With a huge sigh, I went inside, paid my entry fee, walked to the first step, and hesitated. Looking up at the circular steps I uttered, “Jesus, you’ve got my back on this one.”

            I kept my head up, imagining Jesus walking ahead of me and standing behind me. My breath stabilized. With each step, I became more confident. By step sixteen, I could have cried. We were doing it. I wanted to high-five Jesus, but stopped when I heard two teenagers say, “excuse me”. The next few steps were swallowed up behind a wall. I could not see them, and the teens were shoving and pushing one another to see who could climb up faster.

            I reached into my pocket, grabbed the index card I had placed there the night before, and read, “Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of the faith is to see what you believe.” (Saint Augustine)

            My back straightened. I could almost feel the light pressure of a hand. Taking one step at a time, I began my ascent. Two more people passed me. I kept moving forward. When I reached the top, I realized the journey wasn’t really about climbing Currituck Lighthouse. It was about confirming my faith. It was a pivotal moment for me, one that continues to be affirmed

            “The assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

            Faith.