Do What Is Right

Wash yourselves. Cleanse yourselves. Remove your evil deeds from my sight. Stop doing evil. Learn to do what is good. Pursue justice. Correct the oppressor. Defend the rights of the fatherless. Plead the widow’s cause.

(Isaiah 1:16-17)

Meditation

We are all filthy sinners, there is no question about that. Even the best of us, the Mother Teresa’s or the most selfless person you’ve ever heard of, needs cleansing. We have all sinned and fallen short of his glory. There isn’t one of us who can stand before the Father in heaven without being washed. The standard bearer of how clean or dirty we are is not one of us. The one we are compared against is Jesus Christ, the only one to live a sinless life. He’s the one who was made sin by the Father to take all our sins to the grave with him. He’s the one who left our sins and wickedness behind when he conquered sin and death. How do we cleanse ourselves? We’re told in scripture to “repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sin.”

Repentance means we turn away from our wrong doing. It doesn’t mean we’re sorry for something but keep doing whatever it is. It means we put it behind us and strive to never do it again. We’re wrong if we think we’re getting away with something when we sin thinking no one is watching. There is no secret sin, he knows what we do in the darkness. So, if we stop to realize we’re not going to get away with anything, it should help us not to do it in the first place. He wants us to seek out and do what is good. He wants us to participate in taking the gospel all over the world. Even if we can’t physically go into the mission field, we can still support with our prayers and financial help.

Today we are unbelievably having to try to defend the rights of the weakest among us, the unborn. Worldwide, hundreds of millions of babies have been ripped from their mother’s womb. Right here in America, we’re approaching seventy million murdered babies. The numbers are so unfathomable, it hard for us to wrap our minds around that kind of carnage. We cannot, as followers of Christ, just stand by and watch this atrocity and do nothing. In this country, we must not support politicians who vote to continue this genocide. There isn’t a child conceived that God does not love. Life is precious and shouldn’t be snuffed out and tossed into a trash can. We should sit on the sidelines and watch this happen. We must provide justice and protection for the unborn.

Prayer Time

Father in heaven, you are the shining star that shows us the way to righteousness. We are totally powerless to find real peace and happiness without your leading. Please, Lord, be with us as we learn to walk in your ways. Please, continue to forgive us when an evil thought or deed creeps back into our lives. Give us discernment to clearly see the difference between good and evil. Help us to treat everyone in a fair way and to stand against those who persecute the weak. We live in a time of great moral failure, Lord, when right is being called wrong and good is called evil. Strengthen our fortitude to endure the travesties of your justice. Embolden us to point out your truth in love and compassion for the lost. Show us how to plead for the unborn in a way that is loving and not judgmental. Soften the hard hearts that praise the taking of a babies life for the convenience of the mother and make them see how terribly wrong it is. It’s in his name, we pray. Amen!