On the night before his spectacular victory over the Midianites, Gideon told his army of three hundred men, ‘Watch me…Follow my lead…do exactly as I do’ (Judges 7:17 NIV). Have a think about how you would react if your boss, a tutor, or your best friend said that to you. Would you be prepared to trust them, or would you be cautious? How about if you said it to the people that know you? Would you have to put conditions on that statement, like ‘be like me when I’m in church, but don’t follow the way I behave the rest of the time’ or ‘follow the way I behave in public, but not in private’? If we feel we’d have to add conditions to that statement, it shows us that we’ve probably got areas of our current lifestyle that we’re not proud of, and prefer to hide away. To earn respect and be worthy of following, there are two qualities we need that really matter. The first is conviction. Conviction is a set-in-stone belief that you live by and refuse to compromise on. A pragmatist adjusts their beliefs and actions to take into account things like not upsetting others, or being liked and accepted. A person of conviction won’t do that. To become people of conviction, we first need to decide that we love God and His will, and put that first in our lives. When we make that choice, and truly stick to it, we won’t want to compromise any area of our lifestyle, or do anything that separates us from God’s will. And when we have this conviction, people will recognise that we’re good role-models, living out our faith, and worth following.
