Planting Righteousness in Our Lives
We are commanded by God to plant righteousness in our lives, so He can bless us, and we can bear the fruit of righteousness in abundance.(Hosea 10:12) Our own righteousness is like filthy rags. However, we can become righteous by trusting Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Then, we have His righteousness in our lives. That transfer of righteousness does not make us perfect. It does not cause us to be righteous in every way. It makes us right with God, because our sins are forgiven, so He does not see our sins, but He sees Christ's righteousness, which has been substituted for our righteousness. In order to walk in righteousness with God and other people, we have to decide to plant righteousness in our lives.
Think of it like planting a crop in a field. If there is no seed sown, there will be no crop harvested. We must plant the good seeds by doing the right things to relate to God. We must plant prayer, Bible reading, having a daily time with the Lord, and surrendering our lives to the Holy Spirit's control every day. If we do not plant these seeds of righteousness, we will not be righteous before God. However, if we do plant them, He will cause us to reap righteousness, because of His great mercy. In other words, we won't be perfect, but He will not so much punish us for our sins, but reward us for planting seeds of righteousness.
Then, we must look at the areas of our lives where we are not using our lives for the Lord. They are the fallow ground. Maybe, they are wasted time and effort, and they are growing weeds, instead of crops. We must break up that soil in our lives. We must have soft hearts and tell the Lord we are ready to do His will. As we present our lives fully to Him for His use, He will rain righteousness on us. He will nourish the parts of our lives that we are presenting to Him, so they can produce fruit in abundance for His kingdom. Yes, He has to produce the fruit, but He will not force us to present our lives to Him.
If we want to be righteous we also have to treat others as God would have us to treat them. We must love them, even our enemies. We must care for them and share the truth with them in love. These are the types of righteous things we must plant in our lives to be fully righteous with God and with other people. All of that is involved in being righteous.
Therefore, planting righteousness in our lives is a full time activity once we become a believer. In reality, it means the same thing as trusting Jesus as Lord of our lives. If we are planting unrighteousness in our lives, it is because He is not Lord, we are not listening to Him and obeying Him. That is why this is such an important command and such a reward when we do the right things.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Hosea 13,14 and Joel 1.
Think of it like planting a crop in a field. If there is no seed sown, there will be no crop harvested. We must plant the good seeds by doing the right things to relate to God. We must plant prayer, Bible reading, having a daily time with the Lord, and surrendering our lives to the Holy Spirit's control every day. If we do not plant these seeds of righteousness, we will not be righteous before God. However, if we do plant them, He will cause us to reap righteousness, because of His great mercy. In other words, we won't be perfect, but He will not so much punish us for our sins, but reward us for planting seeds of righteousness.
Then, we must look at the areas of our lives where we are not using our lives for the Lord. They are the fallow ground. Maybe, they are wasted time and effort, and they are growing weeds, instead of crops. We must break up that soil in our lives. We must have soft hearts and tell the Lord we are ready to do His will. As we present our lives fully to Him for His use, He will rain righteousness on us. He will nourish the parts of our lives that we are presenting to Him, so they can produce fruit in abundance for His kingdom. Yes, He has to produce the fruit, but He will not force us to present our lives to Him.
If we want to be righteous we also have to treat others as God would have us to treat them. We must love them, even our enemies. We must care for them and share the truth with them in love. These are the types of righteous things we must plant in our lives to be fully righteous with God and with other people. All of that is involved in being righteous.
Therefore, planting righteousness in our lives is a full time activity once we become a believer. In reality, it means the same thing as trusting Jesus as Lord of our lives. If we are planting unrighteousness in our lives, it is because He is not Lord, we are not listening to Him and obeying Him. That is why this is such an important command and such a reward when we do the right things.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Hosea 13,14 and Joel 1.