The Righteous Man (or Woman) Shall Live By Faith

Egads, I left you all wondering “what’s next?” didn’t I?

You’ll be pleased to know that God reminded me I had left you stranded by sending me another “daily bible verse” prompting.  It has to be God, the phone application never prompts me.  The only other time it prompted me was the beginning of this study on righteousness. 

Here is the verse that God prompted me with today:

For the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, And His ears are open to their prayers; But the face of the LORD is against those who do evil.  And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good?   1Peter 3.12-13

Ok, back to my study of righteousness.

One of my favorite New Testament verses is 1 John 1.9:

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Sin = unrighteousness.  I’m so thankful that God understands that we are not currently perfect and has promised to forgive us when we confess to Him.  This does raise the question of His forgiveness if we DON’T confess our sins.  You have to notice that this verse is conditional…see the word “if.”

Food for thought and a topic for another blogging session.

Onward and upward….

Matthew 6.1 tells us:

Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.  (If you’re doing good deeds to be noticed for them, you’re doing them for the wrong reason.)

The verses that follow then give very specific righteous actions (although I’m sure these are not all-inclusive):

1.  Giving
2. Praying
3. Fasting
4. Don’t hoard earthly possessions (my paraphrase)

After talking about how we tend to worry about material needs, He tells us not to worry.  More specifically in verse 33, Jesus says to us:

Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you.

And finally, Romans 9 & 10 talks specifically about achieving righteousness by works versus by faith.  There is a big difference.

What it has boiled down to is this; 

For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their (Israel) own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.   For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.  Rom 10.3-4

God loves righteousness and we should all seek righteousness in God’s eyes.  But it is a matter of faith, not head knowledge.

God equates righteousness to belief and belief comes from faith and faith from the heart; it is a gift from the Holy Spirit.

I thought I knew all about being righteous and doing what is right and good in God’s eyes.  But I really didn’t know anything.

I have spent years trying to please people, thinking that if I did or said just the right thing, I would receive the love that I so deeply needed.  It never worked. So, for many years, too many to even put a number to, I have protected my heart from hurt and pain.  The world taught me to do that, it had become a survival tactic.  I have not been able to trust anyone, not even God.  

I knew this about myself (and so did God) and I had prayed about it.  

And with one little verse from the bible and a huge dose of Holy Spirit, God revealed truth to me about trust and righteousness.  He opened my heart to trust Him.  I may not trust anyone else, but I trust Him.  

So I will live by faith and believe Him.  He has made many promises within the pages of His word…I believe He will keep those promises.

And my love for Him has blossomed.  I do truly love Him.

For the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, And His ears are open to their prayers; But the face of the LORD is against those who do evil.  And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good?   1Peter 3.12-13

God has my back.

Righteousness

As you’ll recall in one of my previous posts (or maybe not if this is your first time reading) I had a God Thing happen to me and it involved a verse…this verse:

And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. Isaiah 32.17

(The version I first read said "trust" forever.)

The words “righteousness” and “trust” were what captured my attention, so I’ve been studying righteousness ever since.

What a study I’ve undertaken.  It’s taken me in a few different directions and it’s kind of overwhelmed me.  I prayed about that this morning.  (On a side note, it was interesting to wake up this morning, read my daily verse and discover it was one of the last verses I discovered last night during my study. Gotta love those God Things!)

Being the methodical person that I am, I thought it might be best to break down my study into pieces for you.

So here goes.

My initial exploration took me back into the Old Testament, right in Isaiah.  It seems God has been instructing his people in righteousness and trust from the beginning, because He says in Isaiah 30.15

…in repentance and rest you will be saved.  In quietness and trust is your strength.  But you were not willing. 

Ouch.

We’re still not willing, me thinks.

Back in Genesis (15.6) we see that God responds to a man’s faith by crediting righteousness to him.

 And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

 This is emphasized in Hebrews 11.7

By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

My understanding of this is that our faith in God encompasses believing in Him and believing Him when He speaks to us.  Which only makes sense when you think about it.  If you are going to have faith in someone, you are going to believe them and trust that what they say is true and in your best interest.  You don’t hesitate if you’re given instructions.

In Deut. 6, Moses is talking to the people about God’s commands and in verse 25 says:

"It will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all this commandment before the LORD our God, just as He commanded us.

In 2 Sam. 22.21 we read:

"The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me.

Observing God’s commands equates to our righteousness in His eyes and He rewards us accordingly.

Hmmmm.   Seems works based…BUT is it really?

There is more to come, but I want to keep my posts to a minimum so you won’t be so overwhelmed like I’m currently feeling right now.

Blessings!