Life, Righteousness and Honor might be the last thing on your mind right now but the scripture said:
“He who follows righteousness and mercy finds life, righteousness, and honor.”-Proverbs 21:21
As I reflect on this topic, I can’t help but to cry out to The Lord to help me not only to set my eyes on Him but set my heart, mind, body and soul unto Him and to live, holy, pure and righteous for Him. Trust me, I know it’s not easy but His Grace abounds and His strengths makes perfect in our weaknesses. I want to find life, righteousness and honor, don’t you?
Here is what James had to say about this:
“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
James 1:19-27 NIV
Yes, “There truly is a reward for those who live for God..” – Psalm 58:11
I have come to the conclusion that Living Righteous isn’t always easy in this world we live in but greater rewards await those who chose to live pure and righteous before our Lord.
When King David faced his times of most intense persecution and danger, he frequently prayed a rather impressive request. On his heart was his need not merely for protection from his attackers but, even more, for protection from sin.
Show me your ways, O LORD,
teach me your paths;
guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my Savior,
and my hope is in you all day long. . . .
Guard my life and rescue me;
let me not be put to shame,
for I take refuge in you.
May integrity and uprightness protect me,
because my hope is in you. (Psalm 25:4-5, 20-21)
Set a guard over my mouth, O LORD;
keep watch over the door of my lips.
Let not my heart be drawn to what is evil,
to take part in wicked deeds
with men who are evildoers;
let me not eat of their delicacies. (Psalm 141:3-4)
It was a kind of praying we Christians need to learn: not just “Lord, keep me safe,” but “Lord, keep me pure,” because we abhor sin even more than suffering. This is the need the apostle James saw for the young Christians who had been scattered by persecution. He wrote in loving concern to strengthen them for clear-headed moral courage even when others were doing evil and even when that evil was being done against them.
But James is not merely a moralist. A moralist has a list of ethical guidelines by which to live a happy and respectable life. A Christian has a person, Jesus Christ, to whom the Christian owes everything, to whom the Christian surrenders everything, for whom the Christian lives in everything. Because of that relationship with Christ, the Christian becomes a person of deep moral commitment. That is how James writes–as a Christian of profound moral earnestness. Therefore what he writes now is not just a gathering of moralisms: “Be quick to listen and slow to speak, because it will help you get along better with people.” James is writing about life in Christ.
He has just been telling his readers: When you face trials of various kinds, beware of the temptation to sin. It is not the suffering of the trial but the temptation to sin that is the most serious danger to you, because sin kills the sinner. Sin gives birth to death, whereas you have been given birth by the work of Christ to be delivered from sin and death. Because you have been given life in Christ, now live the righteous life that God desires.
Friends, It is time to seek the LORD, Till He comes and rains righteousness on you. The path of the righteous is like the shining sun, That shines ever brighter unto the perfect day.
– Flore💕
