The Benefits of Righteousness
I woke up this morning feeling the way I thought I would wake up on Saturday; feeling like I am putting my cold and symptoms behind me. I am not 100% but certainly feeling better than the past two days. I did call and postpone my scheduled test for Tuesday. After that cancellation call, I received a call from my primary care physician telling me my latest test confirmed an intestinal virus. So I will be on some oral antibiotics for the next two weeks.
When she first called she said, “you are brilliant!” I said, “no my wife is.” Debbie was the one that felt we needed to get the last specimen into the lab. So it looks like her suspicions were confirmed. At any rate we have just found that with my issues it is important to be as proactive as possible, even with “routine” illnesses. Debbie recently commented, “I’m not sure if you are going to have any routine illnesses.”
I was able to get outside to trim some rose bushes and trim some grass before an early afternoon rain. While outside my dog ran off and I spent quite a bit of time tracking him down. Most of it was me chasing after him in my electric wheelchair. I thought, “this is not me taking my dog for a walk, this is my dog taking me for a ride!”
BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY… “Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.” Hosea 10:12 “…the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.” Isaiah 32:17
Both Hosea and Isaiah addressed God’s people in the midst of their idolatry and impending judgement from the Lord at the hands of foreign nations. When you look at the activities and lifestyle of those who were to be known as “God’s people” they were anything but “godly” or “righteous.”
The call to righteousness is a call away from idolatry, dishonesty, immorality and trusting in the wisdom of man and power of political alliances with other nations. It is a call to return to “right living” a “right heart” and a “right spirit.” When I look at the cause and effect relationship of righteousness in both of these verses, I think of the old counseling adage that says, “you have to act your way into a better way of feeling, you don’t feel your way into a better way of acting.”
In other words righteousness comes first. That which is so often sought in other areas and by other means is a byproduct of righteousness. So Hosea call is for God’s people to sow righteousness to reap steadfast love. Turning to the Lord, seeking Him is what brings that strength that is needed for “righteous living.”
Isaiah then adds that righteousness has the effect of “peace” and results in “quietness and trust forever.” You will find that when you put the Lord first and walk according to His ways, it is the best way to live. You discover God’s faithfulness and love which produces greater trust in the Lord.
We can see it in recorded history, we can see it in our world today, living by God’s standards, being “right” in His eyes is the only way to live. Are you looking for “peace and quiet”? Sow righteousness, seek the Lord, allow Him to rain righteousness on you.