The Conviction Catapult

Hi everyone,
So I want touch on a topic that has been on my mind the past week. And that is convictions. Now we, human beings have a conscience and with this conscience comes convictions of what is right and wrong. Just and injust. Truth and deception. There are obvious things that a majority of people have a common conviction on but what I want to talk about is the less obvious convictions of the human soul. Especially that of Christians. For example, this past week I was convicted. I felt as if I was letting my media intake draw me away from the more important things in my life. Conversations with friends, constructive projects at home, time with my critters, and spending quality time with God and in His Word. As of late, because I work so much at my job, when I come home, it is so easy to settle myself into mindless entertainment with the world wide web at my fingertips. And even though it can be a wonderful thing instead of using it for productivity and learning something that will actually benefit me in the future, I found myself wasting it on things that really are of no benefit to my life at all. Watching fictional videos, TV shows and other media does not advance my knowledge or my productivity in Christ. And unfortunately I was justifying it by the fact that I am working so much that I need time to just think about nothing, to just drown myself in other worlds that aren't reality. However God has been showing me a different view:That I am susceptible to slip into a pattern of unproductivity if I allow myself to. The devil is cunning and he knows how to use things against us. "Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." 1 Peter 5:8 (ESV) So what we think we deserve or is giving us a break is actually taking us down a path we don't want to go. So God has convicted me of my consumption of media. He knows that, that can be my weakness and has brought it my attention. And because of it, other parts of my life have suffered. Because of this I know now that I was must be extremely careful and limit myself. The past week or so I have been doing that and even refusing to allow myself to watch anything that isn't educational or increasing my knowledge in the Lord during the week and still very limited during the weekend. I am choosing to be busy on other things during those times. And let me tell you some days it is harder than I thought it would be. Temptation is strong but I am learning to overcome. I am learning that whenever I feel those urges to run to God in prayer or in His Word to help me stay on course.
Now the meaning of this post rather than my broad description of what I struggle with...I have my personal convictions. I know what draws me away from Christ and time with Him and from being productive in my life. What I struggle with may be of no concern to someone else. And that caused me to think about other Christians. We all have convictions but sometimes they all aren't the same. I mean granted, we should have the same core convictions of what we know to be wrong...dishonesty, hate, envy, and other forms of blatant evil, but what some struggle with is not what others do. For some, their amount of media intake throughout the week is not a stumbling block to them. Maybe it is sports, shopping, working their job 24/7, partying, spending too much time in front of the mirror...it can be so many things. And as we are all different, so are our personal convictions to a degree. And I think part of the problem with the church today is that we think we all have got to have the same convictions and if so and so doesn't hate makeup as much as I do, or watches more football than me, or is on social media three more hours than me throughout the week then they are just lesser of a Christian than me. No. We all need to question how our time is spend and we are not to become a slave to things or let them become our idols, but I think sometimes we worry a little too much about everybody else and not enough about ourselves. We can point out things to fellow believers in love if we notice they are becoming a real detriment to their lives, but we need to make sure we examine our own lives first and that we don't need some serious reproof. We are to not be a stumbling block to someone else. "Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother." Romans 14:13 Also we need to understand that what may be a struggle for us, may not be the same for someone else. And that is the beauty of the body of believers. We all have our personal convictions and that makes up all the facets of the family of Christ. We can help each other in those things. We can shed insights and instead of pointing fingers and condemning one another, begin to understand one another and help one another. We have to be careful to not get into this holier-than-thou mindset just because we do less or more of something than someone else.
Now with our individual convictions how do we move on and change things? Well first off we spend time in prayer admitting these struggles to God and reading in His Word on what He says about these matters. Then based off of what we know to be true we have to consider if this something that we need to cut all together out of our lives or something that need to learn to restrict. Obviously there are things that may need to be cut out of our lives entirely, but for example God is not telling me that I can never watch an episode of Little House on the Prairie again! :D I just need a stricter schedule as to how much and when I watch things when I could be doing more productive things or spending quality time with Him. We may even need to get our friends and families involved to help us. Maybe instead of going shopping at the mall every Friday or going to every game, we can sit down and spend sometime discussing God's impact in our lives and encouraging one another in faith. Instead of shutting off our brains to life when we get home from work,  perhaps we can be refreshed by God's word and choose to do things that edify Him, instead of our own devices. And perhaps one of the biggest helps to me, is before I make choices of how to spend my time, I question is this really beneficial? Is these really helpful to my life or growth as Christian? "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." Philippians 4:8 
It all comes down to priorities and discipline. What matter to us most? What kind of life do we want to live? It is not bad to enjoy certain things in life but I think we must always be careful to watch if these things begin to take up too much of our life. Because we only have this one life on earth and we should take care not to waste it. Listen to your the convictions that God gives you. Don't ignore them and don't point fingers at others to make yourself feel better somehow. God wants to use YOU, wants to GROW you, and that is pretty amazing. So don't let those opportunities pass you by. He will give you the endurance to keep going and He will renew your spirit. I am already experiencing more satisfaction, peace and joy and honestly it is worth it. But you have to lay aside the things that keep you from experiencing His best. Don't get to the end our life and see you spend it on so many others things that didn't matter. Convictions don't have to be a crutch. Let them catapult you to a better more fulfilled life God has in store.
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." Hebrews 12:1