We must first be convicted to God and Christ and Their word before we
will be committed to Them. To be
convicted is to be persuaded and convinced of the truth of God’s word.
Our conviction comes from a study and belief of God’s word.
To be committed is to trust God with total confidence.
If we are not convicted there will be no commitment.
Our conviction and commitment are not “what is the least we can do
to get by?” We can never do
too much for the Lord, but we can certainly do too little.
Jesus says, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny
himself and take up his cross and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24). Jesus
also says, “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of
Me. And he who loves son or
daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.
And he who does not take up his cross and follow after Me is not
worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:37-38). Does
the life we are living show we are worthy of Christ?
Do we love other people or things more than we love Jesus?
Had we rather be with someone else at a ballgame or some other
entertainment than to assemble to worship God?
Where are our priorities? If
we offer Christ second place in our lives, we offer Him nothing, because He
will not accept second place. He
must always come first in our lives. If
we are committed to Christ we will always give him our very best and not our
leftovers. Christ must be the
total Lord and Master of our lives.
In our conviction and commitment to the Lord, we must always do all
He says, only what He says, and for the reason He says.
We must “keep oneself unspotted from the world” (James 1:27) and
“live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world” (Titus
2:12). We must “be steadfast,
unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord” (1 Corinthians
15:58). We are to “Set your
affection on things above, not on things on the earth” (Colossians 3:2).
And we are to “seek first the
kingdom
of
God
and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33) if we are really committed to the
Lord. Only if we are totally
convicted and committed to the Lord can we go to Heaven.