A Long and Prosperous Life

Do you want a life that is long and prosperous?  I can’t imagine any of us answering, “No” to that question.  We might think we don’t know how to attain that kind of life even though we might desperately long for it.  Well, that question is asked in the Bible and God provides us with a clear answer.

Does anyone want to live a life that is long and prosperous? Then keep your tongue from speaking evil and your lips from telling lies! Turn away from evil and do good. Search for peace, and work to maintain it.

Psalm 34:12-14

In our current “post truth” world and social media feeds filled with negative hurtful and divisive words and labels, many of which are just lies meant to spin a particular version of events or provide a certain perspective a person wants us to carry forward, God describes a way of life and peace we can access.

First of all, we should not be contributing to the conversation where evil things are said and lies and accusations are spewed out.

Secondly, where we encounter them, we are to turn away from them.  How long would the TV screen in our homes we turned off if we shut it down every time a sit-com or a movie, or a newscast pushed this kind of content in front of us? 

God, in fact, is telling us to do just that:  change the channel; turn it off; put our minds on other things. “Turn away from evil and do good.”

And it’s like God has a view of our lives today when He tells us to “Search for peace, and work to maintain it.”  That suggests to me that we’ll have to dig a little deeper to find what’s really true. 

We’ll have to accept and forgive some flaws and failures in individuals and focus on the overwhelming good in their lives and in our relationships with them.  We might even have to do that with ourselves. 

We must search for peace – peace that only Jesus gives us and do  whatever the “work” is in the moment to hold onto that truth.

Loving God, we do want this long and prosperous life You offer to us in Your Word.  We find our current culture a difficult place in which to find it but, clearly, with Your help and power, truth and peace is there to be found and maintained. 

We want to make this prayer in Your Word ours today and so we pray:

Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.

1 Thessalonians 5:23

Let’s do our best to turn away from evil however we encounter it today, seek peace, and maintain it.  God is with us to help us be successful.

Further Encouraging Thoughts For Today

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