Text- Deuteronomy 13:18 “When thou shalt hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep all his commandments which I command thee this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of the LORD thy God”
I have heard people, who claim that what we do doesn’t matter before God since we are saved by grace and not by works. But then, while works is not instrumental to salvation, it is a necessary result of salvation. One of the initial evidences of genuine salvation is that your disposition towards right and wrong things change… and keeps changing.
In the past few days, we have discussed two things that mostly hinder people from doing what is right:
What is popular
What is good
Today we will go on to talk about yet another thing that commonly prevents people from doing what is right in the eye of God: What is comfortable.
If what you want is to remain in your comfort zone, you will have to make many compromises on doing the right things. Doing the right things will many times require to come out of your comfort zone, and may sometimes cause you some discomfort.
Daniel had to sacrifice the comfort of good food in order to do that which was right in the eye of God. We read of his decision in Daniel 1:5,8:
“The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king’s table. They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king’s service… But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way”
In Matthew 8:19-20, we read the story of a potential disciple of Jesus; this man actually came of his own volition to commit to following Jesus, but Jesus was quick to inform him that his decision may cost him some comfort:
“Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, ‘Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.’ Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
Jesus was inadvertently pointing the attention of this man to the fact that the commitment he was about to make will cost him some personal comfort. Till date, that is still the case. If you’re going to do that which is right before the eye of God, you must necessarily put Christ and His word before your personal comforts.
I charge you today, to do what is right before the eyes of God all the time, even if it is not popular; even if it doesn’t seem like the best bet; and even if it is not comfortable. Remember, we will not be judged by the standards of this world, but by the standards of His Word.
PRAYER
Holy Spirit, I ask for your help and guidance to please God with my life; I ask in the name of Jesus that you guide me to do the right things always even when it’s not comfortable.
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