Keep On Doing What Is Right

Keep On Doing What Is Right

If you are suffering according to God’s will, keep on doing what is right, and trust yourself to the God who made you, for he will never fail you. –1 Peter 4:19

We have a hard time believing that it could ever be “God’s will” for us to suffer. And yet if we embrace God’s sovereignty over the universe and accept that nothing happens apart from his power and control, we know our suffering must ultimately be according to God’s will. So then what do we do?

The intensity of suffering can put us in a place where we are tempted to compromise, where we can easily justify an attitude or action we never would have considered before pain invaded our existence. Fear and pain can cause us to lose sight of the guiding force in our lives: pleasing God.

In your search for answers in the midst of your suffering, have you resolved to live a pure and holy life? It’s tempting to “give yourself some space,” to “cut yourself some slack” since everything in life is hard. Have you rejected this temptation? Have you determined to be faithful to do what God has clearly asked you to do or not do through his revealed moral will (his Word)? When you are in the midst of difficult circumstances and you aren’t sure what to do, hold tight to what you do know. Obey God’s clear commands without compromise.

Sometimes it is difficult to know what is right, but more often we do know the right thing to do; we just don’t want to do it. It costs us something we don’t want to pay. We make matters more complicated than they are, straining for the gray in what is clearly black and white. And really our reluctance to do what we know is right is a lack of faith. Our reluctance to obey God’s clear commands is our way of saying to God, “You may have made me, but you don’t know me well enough or understand the situation well enough to know what is best for me. I know best what is best for me.”

He’s the one who made you. He knows best what you need and what will make you eternally happy. So keep on doing what is right, no matter what people around you say. Entrust yourself to him through your wholehearted obedience, confident that he knows best.

Maker, I want to suffer in a manner that pleases you, and I am determined to keep on doing what is right. I entrust myself to you by obeying your Word.

DIGGING DEEPER