The “wishy-washy” Christian who has no real convictions about Christ is a very poor advertisement for Christ. Someone has aptly written, “He who floats with the current, who does not guide himself according to higher principles, who has no ideal, no convictions – such a man is a mere article of the world’s furniture – a thing moved, instead of a living and moving being – an echo, not a voice. The man who has no inner life is the slave of his surroundings, as the barometer is the obedient servant of the air at rest and the weathervane the humble servant of the air in motion.”
In one of the great crises of Martin Luther’s life, when he was standing firmly and alone for a conviction that he refused to surrender, he was confronted furiously by a powerful opponent. “Did he realize, asked that opponent, what he was doing and what power he was defying? Did he expect any force worth mentioning to take up arms and come to his help?”
“No,” said Luther quietly, “I do not expect that.” “Then where will you be?” thundered the dignitary who had come to challenge him. “Where will you be?”
And to that Luther answered in words that seem to go to the very heart of things, “I shall be where I have always been – in the hands of Almighty God.”
Brethren, let’s be sure that our convictions are right, and that we are STANDING on them!
Greely Kirkpatrick