Before we pray, let's first take a moment to listen to God's word and then we'll pray together.
Righteousness
In 1st Samuel 26:23, David declares, "The Lord rewards everyone for their righteousness and faithfulness. The Lord delivered you into my hands today, but I would not lay a hand on the Lord's anointed."
If you really think about the first part of that verse, it is both sobering and encouraging.
The Lord rewards everyone for their righteousness and their faithfulness.
Those words immediately call me to examine myself before God.
How do I stand when he looks at me?
Does he see a faithful servant?
Does he see a heart that is committed to walking in obedience?
Or does he see someone who is easily swayed by the world?
The subject of righteousness has always been both beautiful and challenging.
We are called to live in righteousness.
Yet scripture makes it clear that in our own strength we fall short.
As Paul writes in Romans chapter 3 : 23, "For all have sinnedand fall short of the glory of God."
If we are sinful by nature, how then can God reward us for righteousness?
What righteousness could we possibly offer him?
This is where the gospel becomes life to us.
Righteousness is not something we create. It is something we receive.
When we place our faith in Jesus Christ, his righteousness is credited to us.
Galatians 2 20 says, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
That changes everything.
By myself, I cannot live righteously.
But when Christ lives in me, I walk in his righteousness.
I may have been born into sin, as Psalm 51:5 declares, "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me."
Yet through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, now I am made new.
My old life is crucified with him and his life now flows in me.
This means the pursuit of righteousness is really about surrender.
It is not about how much good I can do to earn God's approval but about how much of myself I am willing to yield to Christ.
Jesus himself summarized it in Matthew 22: verses 37-38.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
This is the first and greatest commandment.
So then the question becomes, do we love him with everything or are we holding back?
Do we give him first place or do we let earthly pleasures, success or material gain take priority?
The Old Testament gives us another perspective in Deuteronomy 6: verses 24-25.
The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God so that we might always prosper and be kept alive as is the case today. And if we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness.
Obedience and reverence for God.
This is righteousness.
It is not just about claiming faith with our lips, but demonstrating it with our lives.
The Apostle John also reinforces this in 1 John 3:7.
Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous as he is righteous.
Notice the word practices.
Righteousness is not a one-time decision.
It is a daily walk.
Righteousness is the consistent yielding of our thoughts, words, and actions to God's Spirit.
But here is the hope.
We do not walk this road alone.
God gives us his Spirit to help us.
Romans 8:4 tells us that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us who do not live according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.
What we could not do in our strength, the Spirit of God enables us to do in God's strength.
So when the Bible says the Lord rewards everyone for their righteousness and faithfulness, it is not calling us to perfection but to perseverance, calling us to remain faithful,
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