Living For God

All His prophets, every seer said, “Turn from your evil ways.”

“The Lord testified against Israel and against Judah, by all of His prophets, every seer, saying, ‘Turn from your evil ways, and keep My commandments and My statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by My servants the prophets.” [1]

Did the people listen to them?

No, they stiffened their necks, refusing to believe in the Lord. They rejected a covenant relationship with God. They were into idols. They sacrificed their sons and daughters with flames unto idols. They practiced witchcraft and fortune telling. They did evil. Thus, the Lord removed them from their pleasant land and dispersed them to places of mistreatment. The Lord “afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of plunderers, until He had cast them from His sight.” “...as He had said by all His servants the prophets.” [2] These exiles were intended to bring them to repentance, and salvation from a worse place, namely hell.

The Lord has provided prayers for us in the Psalms to pray against evil. “O, that You would slay the wicked, O God! Depart from me, therefore, you bloodthirsty men. For they speak against You wickedly; Your enemies take Your Name in vain. Do I not hate them, O Lord, who hate You? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies.” [3]

Murderers and blasphemers destroy nations. We should not allow a TV to spew murder and blasphemy into our homes because as we do we join with those who support such evils.

The Lord says, “Do not be deceived: evil company corrupts good habits.” [4]

The Lord teaches us to pray for purity: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.” [5]

We should pray against the influence of evil, “Do not grant, O Lord, the desires of the wicked; do not further his wicked scheme, lest they be exalted. Selah” And know that the Lord will be with us if we do, “Surely the righteous shall give thanks to Your Name; the upright shall dwell in Your presence.” [6]

Pray to be kept from temptation and delivered from evil. “Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips. Do not incline my heart to any evil thing, to practice wicked works with men who work iniquity; and do not let me eat of their delicacies.” [7]

God advises us, “He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. Happy is the man who is always reverent, but he who hardens his heart will fall into calamity.” [8]

Though we aim to live right before God, our good deeds never match the standard of God’s holiness. We all sin says the Bible and need God to forgive us. Praise God that “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” [9]

Now, we live and thrive by God’s grace. The Apostle Paul did! He wrote, “By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” [10]

Now, we live and thrive in the hope that God has given us. He says, “In Christ all shall be made alive.” Soon, “God will be all in all.” [11] That which opposed our Lord will be no more.

Those of us who have believed in and professed Christ as our Lord and Savior will be raised from the dead, as the Scripture says, “The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man. Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” [12]

Amen! “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” [13]

[1] 2 Kings 17:13
[2] 2 Kings 17:14-15, 17-18, 20-23
[3] Psalm 139:19-22
[4] 1 Corinthians 15:33
[5] Psalm 139:23-24
[6] Psalm 140:8, 13
[7] Psalm 141:3-4
[8] Proverbs 29:13-14
[9] 1 Corinthians 15:3-4
[10] 1 Corinthians 15:10
[11] 1 Corinthians 15:23, 29
[12] 1 Corinthians 15:42-44, 49, 51-52, 57
[13] 1 Corinthians 15:58