Convictions

One man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. ~ Romans 14:2

Ever since the time I was little, we would always sneak snacks into the movie theatres, even though all of them said you weren't supposed to. My mom or my grandma would empty out their purses just enough that we could sneak in candy bars. I think as I got older, my friends and I got more daring and would sneak in soda. Although, soda got really hard, because those around you could hear you when you opened it--the cans, especially, but the bottles, too.

At any rate, I think it was two summers ago when the movie Fireproof hit the theatres and we invited a couple from our small group to go to the movies with us. When we were getting ready to go to the movies, I don't remember if it was me or my husband or both at the same time, but we agreed not to take snacks to the movies. It felt "wrong" to do so. I wasn't sure why, all of a sudden, it felt "wrong" to sneak snacks in, especially after becoming so "good" at it. So I did what I always did when I had a "spiritual" question, I called my friend.

My friend had been a stronger, longer leader than me, so I always felt good about asking her opinion on things. So, I called her up and explained the situation and asked if it was wrong and had it been "wrong" all those years before. She told me that what I was experiencing was "conviction". She said that the Holy Spirit was using this experience to let me know not to do that at this particular time. She couldn't tell me whether or not I would ever again feel not guilty about sneaking food into the theatres. She made it clear, though, that if the Holy Spirit was convicting me to not do it at this time, I shouldn't do it.

She also said that the conviction may not even be for me. She said it was possible that I was feeling convicted to not do it and by not doing so would benefit the other couple. She said it was possible, for example, that if the other couple saw us smuggle in snacks, it would distract them and what ever message they were supposed to get from the movie would be lost because they'd been thinking about our actions of sneaking in snacks the entire time.

Paul talks about this very thing in Romans 14. He says, "Nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean," (14). This would be the conviction part. If the Holy Spirit tells you not to do something, it becomes "unclean," (defiled or unholy; continuing to do this action becomes an act of disobedience). Paul also says, "If your brother is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died," (Romans 14:15). This is the part that my friend was talking about. She said that it was possible that my actions would so distress my friends, that it would distract them from whatever God was trying to do in their lives.

I didn't know this passage of scripture at the time that this happened two summers ago. It's possible I'd heard it talked about in a sermon and hi-lighted the passage, but I didn't know it to the point where when my friend was talking about this very thing I would have recognized her thoughts as being from the Bible. I just believed she had wisdom and knew she hadn't steered me wrong before and that's why I went to her for advice. I'm always amazed by the people and things that God will use to teach us about His truths.