Living Right

March 19th, 2026

Doing the right things. Making the right decisions. Saying the right things.

God uses an old fashioned term - righteousness - to describe these actions. It's 'living right".

How do I know what is right? The answer to that question is God's Word is right. It's the truth. There are large sections of the book of Proverbs where God spells out what living right means. Here are a few -

"The desire of the righteous ends only in good, but the hope of the wicked only in wrath." Proverbs 11:23.

"The plans of the righteous are just, but the advice of the wicked is deceitful." Proverbs 12:5"

"The righteous detest the dishonest; the wicked detest the upright." Proverbs 29:27.

God speaks to me through the words, explaining them and helping me apply them to my life. The Holy Spirit convicts me when my thinking gets off and my actions don't reflect what I believe.

I'm so glad I have the role-model of Jesus. I don't have to try to look around me and try to find someone I want to imitate in order to 'live right'. I have Jesus. This truth has often helped me move past major disappointments with people - especially people in the church. I used to expect people who went to church to be a lot more 'righteous' than others until I realized that we're all just people, struggling with our weaknesses. If we are believers, God is gradually redeeming our lives but it's often very clear that he still has a lot of work left to do.

So watching people - especially people who say they are Christians - confused me and I often became disillusioned. Then I looked to Jesus. Focused on him. And the issues about imperfect Christians went away.

When Jesus was on earth, he gave imperfect people grace and love and spoke truth at the right time into their lives. This makes me glad because I am imperfect - I need grace, love and truth. And I need to give other imperfect people grace, love and speak truth when God prompts me.

Jesus is my role-model. If he did it, it's the right thing to do.