The LORD did not hesitate to bring the disaster on us, for the LORD our God is righteous in everything he does; yet we have not obeyed him. – Daniel 9:14
Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God. 3 John 11
Today’s Reading: Daniel 8-10; 3 John
I came across both of these passages and wondered to myself, can it really be this simple?
Daniel is praying to God and asking forgiveness for his people and he sums up their calamity in that one sentence. God is simple. So of course the fact that they have acted wrong for such a long time means that they have to pay for their actions. The chickens always come home to roost.
John came with similarly simple truth. I tried to dissect it and find a way for it to not be so simple but it really is. Don’t imitate evil. Anyone who does what is good is from God and those who do evil don’t know God. After all, if you know God then why would you live an evil life?
Simple.
The more that I think about life the more convinced I am that yes, it is this simple. We know what is right and what is wrong. It’s really not all that confusing.
Here’s the issue: the truth is simple, we are not. We are the ones who complicate things.
We complicate things with our desires to do things that make us happy or make us feel good even when those desires conflict with doing what is right. I know I’ve been at that crossroads a million times. I have wanted things that ended up hurting others. Sometimes I held back and did what was right, but other times I still went for it and ended up hurting others in the process.
We live in a society that teaches us to go after what we want no matter how others are affected by our actions. That’s not an excuse, it’s just the reality. The question is whether or not we will do what is right or what is normal. It’s not an easy decision but it is a simple one.
Wu-Tang knows what I’m talking about.
I heard a sermon today that mentioned it's easy for us to live in this way because we all agree that "no one is perfect". So all we have to do is look to our left and right and find someone "worse" than us and we can justify our sin. But a day will come when we are judged for our every action and what comes forth from our mouths. And we won't be able to run from it anymore.
ReplyDeleteYep... misery loves company. It's interesting how we have to acknowledge our sin so that we can repent and ask forgiveness for it. Accountability comes first. Simple in concept tho we make it complicated.
ReplyDeleteI agree that we tend to complicate things (a lot). Isn't it weird that we have to learn to UNcomplicate things? Makes no realistic sense to me, yet...
ReplyDelete"It’s not an easy decision but it is a simple one.". A true battle of the flesh and Spirit.
@Pure Perseverance Yep! it's amazing how that works.
ReplyDeletesimple and easy are two different things...i think it is that simple....but it is not easy!! being a person of faith is hard. but at least that's not a surprise since god basically tells us that. :)
ReplyDeleteYes very true. It's just interesting how the truth can be so simple in fact but hard in execution.
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