Do It Right!

"Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ."  Philippians 1:27a

"Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry....But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language from your lips....Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity."  Colossians 3:5, 8, 12-14

My daughter Weety and I are taking some knitting classes.  One day, after the instructor had shown one of our classmates the correct way to make a certain stitch, our fellow student exclaimed excitedly,  "It does better when I do it right!"  I thought to myself,  "That's so true of life."  Life goes so much better when we do the right things the right way.

A friend of mine and I have a saying we often quote to each other.  It is,  "Always take the high road."  In other words, whatever anybody else does--or sometimes, in spite of what somebody else does--we need to do the right thing, the honorable thing, the thing that pleases God.  Can you imagine Jesus acting or responding at any time in a way that would displease His Father?  If He would not, then neither should we.

It's easy enough in most instances to know what the right thing is, if we are familiar with the Bible.  This holy book is very plain spoken on many subjects.  The problem with many people who try to discredit the Bible by saying it is too hard to understand or that it contradicts itself or criticize it otherwise, is that they just are looking for an excuse not to be responsible for doing what it says.  The Biblical commands are not hard to understand, but, I grant you, it is very hard for us to carry some of them out .  Our human nature, that old sin nature, wants to do things its own way rather than God's way.  If we are going to "do it right," we must determine that we are going to choose to obey God's will in every situation.  A youth pastor used to tell his young people before they went out on a date to decide how they would act and what they would do before they ever climbed into a car together.

There is a hymn that says,  "I have decided to follow Jesus."  Everything you do goes better when you do it right, when you do it God's way.

Father, I have decided to follow Jesus.  I have determined to obey you in every situation I face.  That is my heart.  You and I both know that I do not always succeed in obeying You, but how I thank You for Your grace and forgiveness and restoration when I fail.  Amen.