To do righteousness

To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than
sacrifice.

Proverbs 21:3

Have you ever done something wrong and then tried to make it right? You
gave a larger offering at church, or you worked harder at some project.
Maybe you went out of your way to do something at home to please your
wife or children. We often think that we can make up for sin or failure
by "doing" something that will make God or our families happy with us.

The Wisdom Writer lets us know that doesn't work. Instead of trying to
make up for our wrongs, God just wants us to do right. The Outback
Steakhouse slogan impresses me. "No rules, just right." The owners and
managers of their franchises train the employees just to do the right
thing. They're not loaded down with rules.

So it is with God with one very positive exception. We have a Book and
the Holy Spirit to help us discern right from wrong. We're not left in
the dark to figure out the "right" thing. We who follow Jesus and
pursue freedom need not quibble over right and wrong. We definitely
shouldn't try to fool God, family and friends, by making some incredible
sacrifice after choosing wrong over right.

I believe this line from Proverbs holds a major key to winning the fight
for freedom. We simply need to commit ourselves to righteousness. We
need to choose righteousness. We need to pursue righteousness. We need
to hunger for righteousness. (Matthew 5:6) Once we've made those
commitments, we must reject anything that is unrighteous. These
decisions happen in two ways. We make an initial consecration of our
lives to righteousness. Then, with God's grace, we renew the
consecration each day for the rest of our lives.

Freedom Fighters want what God wants. We pursue what God wants. We
reject what God dislikes. We do that every day. We do it every hour.
We do it every minute if necessary. We just do it.

God's Word will strengthen our resolve to choose righteousness. God's
people will help us continue to pursuit. God's Spirit resides in us to
empower us toward right choices. We CAN pursue righteousness and
justice. It's a choice we make. We can pursue successfully, too.

As we live righteously, we can learn the joy of sacrifice to God for all
the right reasons!

Don't forget: You can't buy your way out of the consequences of sin with
sacrifices.