How Do You Live Your Life?
doing good, or doing only for yourself…
'Truly the righteous attain life, but whoever pursues evil finds death.
Be sure of this: The wicked will not go unpunished, but those who are righteous will go free.
The desire of the righteous ends only in good, but the hope of the wicked only in wrath.
Those who trust in their riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf.'
Proverbs 11:19,21,23,28
the focus of these verses are the difference between the man that walks righteously, and the other who only lives for the fulfillment of himself. the first guy does things for the glory of God, to honor Him; while the second lives for the desires of the world.
righteous - adjective: behaving in a morally correct way, or considered morally correct ~cambridge dictionary~
selfish - adjective: concerned chiefly or only with yourself and your advantage to the exclusion of others ~vocabulary.com~
it really isn’t a hard decision which way you want to walk in life and how you live it out. if it wasn’t abundantly clear, here’s a quick summary:
righteous - life, selfish - death, 1 point to righteous;
righteous - freedom, selfish - punishment, 1 point to righteous;
righteous - good outcome, selfish - aggravation, 1 point to righteous,;
righteous - growing, selfish - wither, 1 point to righteous, this makes for a total of 4
sometimes living righteously seems dull, difficult, unrewarding, and that has more to do with perspective than reality. there are consequences and rewards with your life choices. one is more difficult with a great payoff in the end, while the other may be easier and offer temporary satisfaction.
the choice is the long game - God’s reward in His Kingdom, or the short-term gratification here on earth. the former is eternal, the latter will come to an end. for me and my house, we choose to walk upright, to bring God glory, honor, & praise. i may not be 100% in doing so, i am trying though.
Father God, thank you for your love. that when i’m not walking in a manner that is Christ-like, you do allow for correction and help me/us to get there. i want my family and i to grow and thrive like the tree planted near living waters:
They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water.
Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit. ~jeremiah 17:8
take away my self-centered, worldly desires. teach us to live for you, to love you and others, to share of your goodness with those you’ve placed in my life. in Jesus’ name i pray, amen!