Personal Callings and Personal Convictions

I have friends who have been called to the mission field. It is their God ordained calling and I admire their faith and their service. Although I admire them, I am not called to their calling. God has other callings for me that require faith and service as well. Now, I could compare myself to them, or they could compare themselves to me, and we might decide that their calling is more important or more holy. If we were to make that judgement we would be wrong. Their calling is neither more important nor more holy. It is only more public.

It is very easy to fall into the trap of believing that what God has called for me is God’s best and anyone that isn’t called in the same manner isn’t living God’s best. It is also easy to do this in other areas of our Christian life. I call these things personal callings or personal convictions. A personal calling is some work that God has called you to do. To a certain degree I feel this blog is part of what God has called me to do. I don’t think He’s called every Christian blog about marriage nor do I believe my calling is more important or holy than others’ callings. The body of Christ is made of of may parts. Each part is important. We cannot all be the same.

The more difficult issue is the personal conviction. A personal conviction is a conviction that God has placed on you personally. For example there are those that believe that kissing before marriage is a path toward sexual immorality and choose not to kiss before they are married. That is an extra-biblical personal conviction. Personal conviction aren’t a bad thing. Usually, like the above kissing example, they have are a personal rule to keep us out of trouble because we know our own limitations.

The problem arises when we hold others to our own extra-biblical personal convictions. While we know our own limitations we don’t know the limitations of others. They have to make their own decisions and choose their own personal convictions base on their own limitations.

Examine your personal callings and personal convictions and see if you’re holding others, particularly your spouse, to your personal standard.