I’m sure by now you should know that I have a very strong passion for music. As a matter of fact, that’s where I draw strength from, when reading the bible or any other Christian literature fails in an attempt to get me back on my feet. Once again, don’t get me wrong. The Bible is the book of life. But you know deep inside when you’re just reading it because you ‘need’ to read it (fulfilling all righteousness, like some of us say) and not because you ‘want’ to read it? I’m not even going to get started with the all ‘fulfilling all righteousness’ stuff, because people just use that phrase to deceive themselves. “Let’s go to Sunday school o, to fulfill all righteousness, so they won’t say we don’t regard God” or “I have to get to church before 7:15pm for prayer meeting, cos I don’t want them assuming I put my work first before God’s work.”
First and foremost, you have to Know God for yourself. Let there be a personal and cogent reason why you do the things you do, when you want to ‘fulfill all righteousness’. Micah Stampley in His song ‘HOLINESS’ says “Righteousness is what I long for; Righteousness is what I need; Righteousness is what you (God) want from me.” Did you notice the phrases ‘what I long for’, ‘what I need’ and ‘what you (God) want from me’? The Bible says “righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach.” Proverbs 14:34. Some translations put it as ‘lifts a nation’ or ‘makes a nation great’ I’m sure nobody desires anything less than greatness. We all want to prosper doing even the most mundane things. And so there is a prerequisite for greatness – righteousness. You want to be great? Yearn after righteousness.
“Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, the nation that keeps faith.” Isaiah 26:2
The most interesting part is that God really wants us to be righteous. He knows how uneasy it is to live a godly life in a world filled with so much sin; a world where ‘wrong’ is so beautifully paraded as ‘right’ and people think they have to yield to the presets, in order to ‘make it’ in life; hence He drew His righteousness near us, such that anyone who wants it can have quick and instant access to it. “I am bringing my righteousness near, it is not far away; and my salvation will not be delayed. I will grant salvation to Zion, my splendor to Israel” Isaiah 46:13.
I looked up the meaning of the word ‘righteousness’ in the thesaurus, and here’s what I found: Virtuos, moral, good, just, blameless, upright, honorable, honest, respectable or decent. Interesting, right? But there was just one word referred to as the direct opposite in meaning…SIN.
Soldiers, it’s not too late to start being honest or just. It’s not too late to start being upright and upholding good values. At first, they’re going to say “You really can’t do without comprising, if you must be with this fold” then maybe you shouldn’t be there, cos as a righteous man, God will not position you in a place where you will wither away, rather He’ll put you in a place where you’ll rise above your companions (through whatever circumstances that come your way). He never forgets His own. The psalmist said “Once I was young, and now I am old. Yet I have never seen the godly (righteous) abandoned or their children begging for bread.” Psalm 37:25 (NLT)
“You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.” Psalm 45:7 (NLT)
It’s not easy to be different, cos you’ll look like the odd one out…but DARE to be different, cos with God on your side, you really do not need an army. Ask David.
“The THOUGHTS of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord; but the WORDS of the pure are pleasant words.” Proverbs 15:26, and verse 29 reads “The Lord is far from the wicked: but He heareth the prayer of the righteous.” Wait a minute! Mere thoughts can be an abomination? wow!!! who then can be saved except the one that is not conformed to this world, but is transformed by the renewing of His/Her mind. May God help us as we commit ourselves to doing what is right. Amen
God will grant us the grace as we say ‘NO’ to that evil act; as we say ‘NO’ to everything that doesn’t give glory to His name, and as we stand for the truth, always. Amen.
God bless you, soldiers!
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