“Good people live right.” Proverbs 20:7 CEV
“Stuff cannot satisfy, and more stuff just doesn’t satisfy more!”
My thoughts today are about “getting life right.”
I think we often get important things upside down and backwards. The world’s model of greatness is one who exceeds others’ abilities and achievements – being smarter, stronger, tougher, working harder, being revered, or even feared by most. Jesus described greatness in His Kingdom as joyfully, generously serving others, rather than expecting to be served. Jesus’ teaching is about getting life right, turning life right side up and going forward.
Worldly-wise people can do spiritually-foolish things. Solomon was the wisest of men, who ultimately did the most foolish of things. His excess eventually overcame his wisdom. He had exceeding wealth and position that provided everything he wanted while he tried anything his heart desired. He finally pronounced it all as vanity, creating nothing more than futility and emptiness. Read Ecclesiastes 1-2. Stuff does not satisfy and more stuff just doesn’t satisfy more! He got life upside down and backwards.
Maybe that’s been happening to you. A too busy life confuses a person about what seems important, and what really is, about what demands attention and what deserves it. People in your life always take priority. Above all else that clamors for your attention and affections, God and family require it.
Here’s my question: does living right make you a good person, or does a good person live right? The assumption seems to be that if you live right you are a good person because the right things make people good. Do people get the matter of goodness upside down and backwards? I am intrigued by Solomon’s explanation, “Good people live right, and God blesses the children who follow their example.” Proverbs 20:7 CEV. Life is not the external matter of what you do; Goodness is internal, why you do what you do.
Goodness is all about who you are; it begins in your heart. Jesus said, “A good person produces good deeds from a good heart. Whatever is in your heart determines what you say.” Luke 6:43-45 NLT. See Proverbs 4:23 NLT. And being who you can be has everything to do with your invitation and willingness to have Christ first and foremost in your heart. When Jesus is in His rightful place, life is right side up. Is that why they describe good people as “upright and upstanding”?
A last thought: it is wise to remember Solomon’s conclusion for good people who live right, “God blesses the children who follow their example,” assuming of course, that example is one of both Godliness and goodness. Your life should be your greatest legacy – a Godly example for your family and friends to follow. There is no inheritance you leave behind better than that.
My prayer for you today is that you keep eternal matters first, and your life upright.