- Jul 8, 2022
- 3 min read
“Depart from evil and do good;
And you will dwell [securely in the land] forever.
For the Lord delights in justice
And does not abandon His saints (faithful ones);
They are preserved forever,
But the descendants of the wicked will [in time] be cut off.”
Psalm 37:27-28 AMP
Embrace the Within.
I am using a lot of my summer to do some much needed study in The Bible and I am beginning to learn that my understanding of what I thought I knew about God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit and mankind was rather flawed and wrong. And this from a person that was raised in a church with a Christian family and spent a lot of time in and out of churches and looking and reading and thinking about all this religion, philosophy, and spiritualism stuff. I am pretty much misinformed and wrong about a lot of it. And what it took to figure that all out was a passion for learning about what was in The Bible. What exactly did God’s Word say about all the things I thought I knew?
Well, let me tell you, I have learned that there are a lot of stories about how flawed people are. If you are looking for a person to follow by example in The Bible as a pillar of morality from birth to death, then there are going to be a lot of folks that miss the mark. So, looking at the folks that are good role models is a place to start. And one of the main themes I see in that narrative is from one of the Psalms I read today which simply states, “Depart from evil and do good”. It really is that simple and yet that complicated at the same time.
As I have continued my journey over the past fourteen days, I can tell you that doing good is not as easy as it sounds. And I am sure, if you are walking the same journey, then you can also bear witness to the difficulty of doing good in a world flawed by the sin of mankind. We don’t make this journey easy on each other. We are flawed and broken people that sometimes feel a need to do evil things out of boredom, out of ignorance, and out of choice. And there are many temptations and distractions out there that can turn our head from good and make evil look better. BUT, good is what our nephesh yearns to do, to feel, to be. That is why we feel shame and guilt when we begin down the road of evil. As we begin to dirty our nephesh, we feel the voice inside us telling us that we are wrong and we should go back. And then another voice might tell us that we are already going down that path so we might as well continue. BUT, we know that we can get back to doing good. And we know that we should be doing good. And that is the choice we are always facing in this life. Are we going to “Depart from evil and do good”?
Doing good is not easy, it is not simple, it is not without hardship and sacrifice. Doing good is selfless and requires that we lose our ego. Doing good opens us to laughter and ridicule and condemnation. Doing good, though, is the path we get to choose. A path that is supported by God and the justice of the Almighty. A path that has the Son and the Spirit to also help us along our way. A path that has other brothers and sisters in Christ to give us support. There is support out there when we do good even when we might feel so alone. We are never alone in this journey.
Peace to your house. Bless your being. The kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Have the day you want. I hope you find whatever you’re looking for.