The Chemistry of Conviction

What if I told you that people want to be spiritual? 

Pew Research said around 4 in 10 Americans have become more spiritual over time. Fewer have become more religious. Let’s just think about that. Around 4 in 10 Americans have become more spiritual over time. Fewer have become more religious. 

Some 41% of U.S. adults say they’ve grown more spiritual throughout their lifetime, compared with 24% who say they have become more religious. I know sometimes we think spirituality is just a way for people to avoid church and avoid God. I don’t think so. 

Spirituality is the search for meaning that every human being goes on. It is a search for the answer to existential questions like Why am I here? What is the purpose of my life? And all the things that connect to that. 

So one of the things I want to talk about very briefly is something I’ve been thinking about, and I hope to put it in a chemistry lab. Newsletter. If you haven’t subscribed to the Chemistry Lab newsletter, do us a favor and please subscribe to that. And even if you don’t like reading those long articles, go ahead and listen to the audio version. Or if you don’t like, listen to the audio version. You know what you can do. Do what? Taylor Swift, I learned this from one of our friends. Uh, do what Taylor Swift’s fans do. They often put on repeat her songs so that she can benefit from Spotify and other platforms from their listening, even when they’re not listening. How about that? That’s all. To get Taylor Swift’s music out to more people. Well, let’s get the content we have out to more people, and you can help us do that. Spirituality. I’ve been thinking a lot about that and how conviction plays into it. 

So I just want to share a few things with you, and maybe you can think about them and what you can do for me and you can do for our team over here is anytime you listen to this, like you’re listening to this content now, and you have an idea, an idea like we’re working on a book, a devotional book. We may create a devotional book. It may be ten days or maybe 15 days. Maybe 20 days. It could be 30 days or more. Please let us know. You can put a comment on YouTube and just let us know there. Or you can email us and tell us. Here’s the kind of devotional book you should write. Here’s the number of days it should be. Here are the topics that we want covered in it. Tell us anything you want. We’re just wide open. We’ll even, you may say, don’t do a devotional book. Do something else. We think you, as a community, can help us be better at serving our community and serving the world around us. 

But can I talk just for a minute about something that has to do with, um, conviction? I think conviction is a really important thing. It changed my life when I first learned about it. Let me just tell you a couple of things about it, and this is going to be quick, hopefully, and you will be able to benefit from it and think about it and reflect on it. I call it the chemistry of conviction. It’s really about, you know, what it takes to be able to get ourselves to a point where we can practice biblical Christianity, not traditions, not conformity, but actually just like living by the Bible, which is really the ultimate level of spirituality from everything I’ve learned and seen. 

And Proverbs 17 three, it says, the crucible for silver and the furnace for gold. But the Lord tests the heart. Then again, in the voice translation, it says, silver is purified in the crucible, gold in the furnace. But the motives of the heart are judged by the eternal. 

Something I’ve had to deal with in my life is the struggle to be spiritual. Very difficult for me to do at the beginning of my Christian life. Very, very difficult. And there were many people who were willing to tell me how sinful I was, which I appreciated. Well, no, I didn’t appreciate that at all. But they were willing to tell me how sinful I was. They were willing to tell me what I was doing wrong. But really, there wasn’t someone around me telling me, your problem is that you’re an unspiritual person trying to become spiritual, and that’s a struggle for everybody. I still wrestle every day. Genesis 32. Wrestling with God is really the pursuit of spirituality. That’s what Jacob pursued, and I believe The Crucible is where God will put us in order to help us become spiritual. He tests our heart. He’s not trying to get us to pass the test and prove anything, but he gives us opportunities to experience and learn through life how to get conviction.

And remember Hebrews chapter 11 and one in the NASB and several other translations. It says that faith is a conviction of things not seen. 

It’s something that goes deep inside of us that determines, you know, what we believe that we’re going to stand on no matter what. Now, what does this require? What’s this crucible all about? I think this crucible is about being willing to take nosedives. You’re like, what? Yeah. It’s willing to crash. What is that? Being willing to fail. 

Post Malone has a song called nosedive. I found God looking for the devil. That’s his first line. As soon as I heard that first line, I was like, hold on a minute. Gotta listen to this song. So I’ll go on. I found God looking for the devil. Chasing a high. Couldn’t keep forever. It’s always worse before the better, I suppose. And how far down. It’s hard to tell when to buy and when to sell. Because that came down. It hurts like hell. And every thorn has its rose. A very interesting analysis, and I believe some of our greatest poetry comes from our writers of music, especially those who speak to younger generations than my own. He goes on in the chorus and says, sometimes you’re driving, sometimes you’re stalling, sometimes you’re flying, sometimes you’re falling. But there’s still beauty in the nosedive. Sometimes you’re running, sometimes you’re crawling, sometimes you’re broke, sometimes you’re bawling. But there’s still beauty in the nosedive. 

I believe The Crucible is like a nosedive. It’s that opportunity for us to experiment and learn. And by the grace of God, grace, meaning he forgives us. He’s with us. He’s trying to help us get where we want to be and where he’s trying to get us to. Sometimes we got to embrace the nosedive. Jacob took a lot of nose dives. Moses took nose dives, Jonah took nose dives. Esther. She almost took a nose dive when she decided, I don’t know if I want to go out there and stand up for the people of Israel at the risk of my life. Mary almost took a nosedive. Being married and being pregnant with Jesus without, when it was obvious that they hadn’t become pregnant by Joseph because they hadn’t been married yet. I mean, it’s just so many things that cause nose dives in their life. And oftentimes I know for me, I stay down. 

You know, I just watch Legends: Karate Kid, I love Karate Kid. I know I love Karate Kid. And in the legend Jackie Chan, the character says, the biggest part of falling down is you have to be willing to get up. Same thing as Batman with Christian Bale. The first one he was in. The reason that we fall is so we can get up and learn. I want to encourage you that we are all trying to get deep convictions. So our faith is rock steady, and it’s going to be rock steady when we’re willing to experience the nosedives in areas that we don’t know about and things we don’t know. 

And one of the things about a nosedive is it’s almost always going to involve sin. And I’ve heard people talk about sin, I don’t want to hear about sin. I don’t want to talk about sin. It’s too negative. Well, let me tell you some information. It’s in an article I wrote for the chemistry lab called How to Be a Catalyst for Change. 

Churches are in a unique position to bring this issue to light and provide transformation. What issue is selfish? Ambition is tearing the world apart. Churches are in a unique position to bring this issue to light and provide transformation, but the topic has been missing from most churches. Modern churches mentioned sin related terms in less than 10% of sermons. At the same time, church attendance and membership have declined. Weekly church attendance has declined across all US religious groups. Church membership dropped from 70% of Americans in 1999 to 47% of Americans in 2020. The share of practicing Christians in the US has declined from 45% to 25% since 2000. The correlation is clear as churches stopped addressing the root cause of selfish ambition, both spiritual and social health deteriorated. It’s time to shift our focus. 

I don’t think sin is something that we should feel is negative. We should see it as the thing that’s trying to undermine our life. And the more we work on it, the more we talk about it. The more we attack it, the freer we become. It’s one of the chief convictions that we have to have. And it’s one of the things that, unfortunately, is where we take most of our nosedives. I’ve taken many of them there, but if we’re going to learn conviction and learn to have rock steady faith, then we have to allow God to bring us into his crucible, test our heart, teach us how to beat temptation, teach us how to beat our weaknesses and overcome them, and teach us, yes, how to defeat sin. Because when we do those things, guess what happens? We fulfill the destiny that God has in mind for us. 

Let’s just talk for a minute about the nosedive and letting God teach us conviction. I think God wants to teach us conviction. Go back and read Hebrews 12 where in the NIrV it talks about discipline as training, meaning God is constantly trying to train us and teach us we’re going to be better tomorrow than we were yesterday. We’re going to be better tomorrow than we are today. That growth and progress is what God is after. Grace is about working with us as we make progress, not judging us every step of the way. 

And first Thessalonians chapter one. In verse two, I’m using the message translation here. It says every time we think of you, we thank God for you. Day and night. You’re in our prayers as we call to mind your work of faith, your labor of love, and your patience of hope and following our master, Jesus Christ, before God our Father. It is clear to us, friends, that God not only loves you very much, but also has put in his hand, put his hand on you. It is clear to us, friends, that God not only loves you very much, but also has put his hand on you for something special. When the message we preach came to you, it wasn’t just words. Something happened to you. The Holy Spirit put steel in your convictions. 

When we become Christians, when we live as Christians, God is constantly transforming us to make us better. How does he do it with the Word of God? Scripture. There’s a song that comes, I think, from the 90s called More Than Words. That’s what Scripture is to a person who’s allowing God to teach them conviction. And we get taught conviction where we’re willing to take a nosedive. You know, when a plane takes a nosedive. One of the things is that sometimes it’s a strategy and a plan of attack. Not that I’m a pilot or anything, but I watched Top Gun twice. You know, I’ve watched popcorn six times. So I watched Top Gun. So I guess that makes me somewhat of an authority on you can take a nosedive to be a strategic move against someone who’s trying to attack you, and then you’re able to rise, get behind them, and nail them. I mean, I think I saw that in a movie. 

So what am I saying? We can’t be afraid of failure. We can’t be afraid of defeat. We’ve got to see that the scriptures are more than words. And they lead to what? Conviction. Unshakable beliefs driving courageous integrity. What does conviction do in our lives? I won’t be able to explain more. You’re going to have to wait for the Chemistry Lab newsletter to come out. But I can tell you this. First, God shapes our character. That turns into conviction, and then that becomes courage. 

And guess what? We know in Acts chapter four and verse 13, that the apostles who were with Jesus had courage, and those who watched took note that they had been with Jesus. 

Let’s think about conviction, how God wants to teach it to us, and give us that rock steady faith. Make sure you subscribe to the Chemistry Lab newsletter so that when the conviction newsletter comes out, you’ll be ready to grab hold of it. 

If you have any ideas or thoughts about that, put them down there in the comments on YouTube or send us an email at Deep Spirituality. Thanks a lot for paying attention to everything. And don’t forget, we’ve got some great podcasts coming up that are about vulnerability. I think you’re going to love those. And we got a bunch of other stuff coming, Scripture playlists, some really cool devotionals, and all that coming out. So, be paying attention to that newsletter and also check the website. Don’t forget to do that. And as I’ve said again and again and again, you’re going to get tired of me saying it. But we want to get this to more people. 

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