how strong is your conviction?

CONVICTION: persuasion, idea, position, stance, view, opinion, thought
There are many different ways to state it but one question sums it all up: What do you stand for?


It can be difficult to take on a strong set of beliefs.  You've decided how you want to live your life and it's exciting to enter into a new way of living.  But it can also be difficult, at times, to turn your back on the things you used to do, the accepted norms or popular opinions.  You'll definitely struggle with friends who will be challenged by your way of life and won't understand why you can't or won't do what everyone else is doing.  You'll definitely experience demands to explain yourself, lighten up, or just change to suit other people's desires.  And you'll most certainly be called "holier than thou", a "goody two shoes" or be asked "so, you think you're better than me?".  Take heart friends, it's all part of the process.  The question is, what's it worth to you?  Will you cave in when it gets uncomfortable or will you stand your ground?  Will you abandon your convictions when they're no longer convenient or popular?


John 12:25 (Amplified)
Anyone who loves his life loses it, but anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. [Whoever has no love for, no concern for, no regard for his life here on earth, but despises it, preserves his life forever and ever.]
What I gather from this is if you love and are caught up in your own life and reputation so much that you have to hold on fiercely to the approval of others, you will most certainly lose your life because that approval will never come, it will never be enough, and your life will be lost, wasted in search of it.  You will compromise more and more to gain that which is fleeting, the approval of the world.  But, if you are willing to give up whatever approval or recognition the world is offering for God's approval, you will attain freedom from the world's acceptance and gain eternal life.


There is a phrase that my pastor uses frequently: "whatever you compromise to keep, you'll lose".  Are you willing to compromise your convictions for a momentary approval, acceptance or pleasure?  And if you are I have to ask, what's the point?  It is pointless to take on a belief and begin to stand strongly for it only to lay it down for a momentary pleasure or acceptance.  If you can so easily lay down your conviction then it can't possibly be very important to you and it can't possibly be very strong.  Surely, it's not worth defending if it can be so easily set aside at a whim and picked up at another whim.   


So I ask again.  What do you stand for?  And i'll remind you that supporting any and everything in lieu of taking a solid stance will not benefit you.  Eventually, everything that's acceptable to you will begin to contradict every other thing that's acceptable to you.
Paul says:
Be alert and on your guard; stand firm in your faith (your conviction respecting man's relationship to God and divine things, keeping the trust and holy fervor born of faith and a part of it). Act like men and be courageous; grow in strength! 1 Corinthians 16:13 (Amplified)