Choose Life
Devotions:
“For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.””
1 Peter 3:10-12 ESV
Peter says that those who want life and to love and see good days need to do certain things. Everyone wants to love life and see good days. It is not just to live long but to live good days. The first thing that must happen is to tame the tongue. We must keep our tongue from speaking evil. This is not only about other people but also about ourselves. We cannot speak death over ourselves and expect to live a good life because according to what we believe and speak is what happens to us. If we do not believe what we speak but speak it often enough we will eventually believe it and see it come to pass in our lives. When we call ourselves losers, we eventually believe it and act like losers instead of what God has made us, overcomers. When we think that we are worthless and confess it then we see it come to pass in our lives. We must train our tongues to speak what God has said about us and as we speak, we believe and will walk in more and more in what God has done.
We are to turn from evil and do good. When we were born again God changed our desires to want to turn from evil and choose the good. Our old habit patterns may want to go the way of the evil but we must over ride those old habits by the power of the Spirit within us and choose the good.
In seeking peace it is not just absence of conflict but wholeness not just for ourselves but also for all those around us. We are His righteousness but the power of the new birth and as we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit we will do all of this and more.