THE BENEFITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears are attentive to their prayer.

1 Peter 3:12a

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Every single waking moment of every single day, a person chooses to do something in one of two ways: right or wrong. Whether it’s a thought, a spoken word (even whispered), or some action, what is carried out can be assessed as good or evil, holy or sinful.

In verse 12 of 1 Peter, chapter 3, we find the benefits and consequences associated with these decisions in regard to our relationship with the God of all Creation and the next two messages will look at each, starting with the benefits of opting to do what is right and righteous. Look again here at these words:

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears are attentive to their prayer. 1 Peter 3:12a

Here’s we find two primary blessings that a Christian believer gains when they elect to be obedient to what the Lord desires from them and therefore live in ways that are pleasing in His sight.

The first blessing is that His (the Lord’s) eyes are “on the righteous” and to get a fuller understanding of what this means, let’s look at several other translations of this portion of the half verse.

The Lord watches over everyone who obeys Him. (CEV)

...the Lord watches over the righteous. (GNT)

The eyes of the Lord watch over those who do right. NLT

In these three renderings of the first part of verse 12a, we get a better grip on this benefit blessing, knowing that the Lord watches over those who do right and righteous things in His sight.

To get a better image of this, I want you to think of a parent who is at a playground with their young child. While the child is having fun, the parent is ever keeping a watchful eye on them to make sure they stay safe and either don’t harm themselves in any way or are harmed by someone else.

As we go through each day, it’s a comfort to know that the Lord’s eyes are watching over us, whether at work or driving to and from our homes, or at the store shopping. The Almighty God of all Creation, the Maker and Master of everything, is mindful of us and always has us in His care. This should drive us to always do what is holy so to not ever fall out of His favor.

The second blessing we get from behaving righteously before the watchful eyes of the Lord is that He will “hear us” and be “attentive to our prayers”.

In regard to this matter of prayer, I have always held the following passage from the Word of God close to my heart. Here’s what we find in John’s first letter:

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of Him. 1 John 5:14-15

Note here that we need to be centered in the very will of God in life. It needs to be the driver of everything we do to include praying. For when we “ask anything according to His will”, the scriptures assure us that “He hears us”. Or as Peter puts it, His “ears are attentive” to our prayers.

And when we pray for the things needed for the Lord’s will to be done in our lives then we can have the confidence in knowing that He will give us what we ask for so that His will can be done.

In other words, when we seek righteousness, and the Lord will always call us to it, then He, the One through which nothing is impossible, will hear our prayers which are centered on His will, an respond to ensure His purposes are fulfilled in and through us.

Wow!

Friends, I pray you are as encouraged and inspired by this message as I am right now. For we all need reminded of the benefits that come from a commitment to righteousness driven by the Word of the Lord and the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Tomorrow, we’ll look at the flip side of this and the cost of ignoring the Lord and living in wickedness.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.