Saturday, December 16, 2023

How to Live Righteously

Prayer – Lord, I choose You.  

Don't you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. Romans 6:16 (Underlined for emphasis.)

 

Meditate. Read God’s word and listen to what He is saying.

 

Live a pure life.
Water lily at Bateman Island
in the Columbia River.
What does it mean to “live righteously” in our world today? According to the Strong’s concordance it is to be upright, virtuous, keeping the commandments of God, as well as innocent, faultless, guiltless, and approved or accepted by God. I’d learned long ago that righteous mean to live in a way that pleases God. It is all by choice.

Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living. Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right. And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:18-23

This is a time of gift giving and receiving. God is offering a free gift—to give to those who are striving to live righteously. Those who have made the choice to follow Him. That’s how to live righteously…choose.

 

Verse of Salvation ~ One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question: "Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus replied, "What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?" The man answered, "'You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.' And, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" "Right!" Jesus told him. "Do this and you will live!" Luke 10:25-28

 

© 2023 Text, photos, and illustrations by Mickey M. Hunacek. All rights reserved. 

All scripture quoted from the New Living Translation (NLT) unless otherwise noted. 

New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. 

Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Biblical search from Blue Letter Bible - http://v3.blueletterbible.org/search.cfm

 

Books by Mickey M. Hunacek

Available as e-books or paperbacks at Amazon.com

 

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