THE EFFECT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

Righteousness doesn't just happen, it is built step by step on a daily basis.  It is not an “unchangeable” part of out character – something, like our body type or sex, that has been given us from the start.  When we need righteousness, if we haven't been working to build it, it will not be there

The act of righteousness is staying on a prescribed path.  Righteousness is like a pathway across a field, we know what is “path” and what is “field”.  To walk off the path is to walk into what is not known as righteousness.  At the best it is undefined, at the wort it is wickedness.  Someone has established what is right and what is wrong.  God has told us both: what is right and what is wrong.  Other sources can tell us this too.  However, other sources may only tell us what, according to them, is right; still others may tell us only what is wrong.  If the others are not God what they define for us as right may be, in fact, wrong.

Righteousness and wickedness start from within.  For the righteous what is within will preserve him when trouble comes, when the outward, uncontrollable, hurtful situation occurs.  However, what was internal to the wicked will have no worth for his deliverance.

The righteous would have been doing good acts and gaining a reputation for it.  Perhaps that is what helps save them.  Perhaps right internal responses results in the right outward responses in the time of trouble.

TO DO

These are some of the things to do to understand the fear of the Lord and to find the knowledge of God (Proverbs 2 vs 3-4):

Do:  Receive God's words.
Result:  Believe what you read as for what it says and expect it to take authority.

Do:  Hide his commandments with you.
Result:  Memorize, keep them tucked away in private places.

Do:  Incline your ear to wisdom.
Result:  When you hear wise things focus your attention on them, tilt the head, hear more clearly.

Do:  Apply your heart to understanding.
Result:  Work for understanding, spend time at it, “stick to it”.

Do:  Cry after knowledge.
Result:  Call out for knowledge, arrest knowledge's attention by calling after her in public.  Visibly point out the facts, be a witness.

Do:  Lift up your voice for understanding.
Result:  In public make a plea for the true relationship among ideas, things, situations.  Cause true things to be presented in the courtroom.

Do:  Seek wisdom as silver.
Result:  Search for wisdom, it is of utmost value.

Do:  Search for her as hid treasures.
Result:  Search by overturning seemingly unrelated things, perhaps she may be behind them.

Remember:  The right way is obvious, the obvious is the right way.

THE DEAD TREE

Years ago when we lived on Blackwood Avenue in Gotha, Florida, there has a tall dead tree in your front yard.  I was very worried about it and feared what would happen if it fell over.  I did not have the money to pay someone to take it down and it was too tall for me to do myself.  But God sent along a wind storm which snapped the tree midway up the trunk and laid the top part neatly in the open part of my yard.  Only a few twigs were taken off the Sweet Gum tree, and a few minor branches off the Laurel oaks toward Timothy's yard.  Everything I was afraid might be damaged was spared:  the trees, the power lines, the well, Fannin's fence, the road, our cars.  Everything was fine.  All I had to do was buy a chainsaw ($260.00), saw up the the remains, and cart it off to the burn pile in the back yard (this was before laws against open burning).

How many things of great convenience does God do for us that we do not even recognize?  How many that we know of do we fail to thank him for?