Keep Me From Evil

KEEP ME FROM EVIL...

" ... keep from evil so that I do not cause pain ..." I Chronicles 4:10

More than one person during my lifetime has said something like this: "I wished I had" or "If only I had" or "Why didn't I" - in connection with making foolish mistakes that were very costly to their job, family, or church.

In his book, THE JABEZ EXPERIMENT, Jay Dennis shares 10 principles from the life of Job to help us guard our hearts from making stupid mistakes:

1. Be right with God. Like Job, we should have a heart for God, and
a reckless abandon to God. (Job 1:1)

2. Be morally pure. Like Job, we should have a pure heart that
refuses to allow immoral thoughts and actions to seize us. (Job 1:1)

3. Be honest. Like Job, we should tell the truth and be transparent,
striving not to be a hypocrite. (Job 1:1)

4. Be awestruck. Like Job, we should have a holy fear of God, a
sense of deep reverence and awe at his power and majesty. (Job 1:1)

5. Be avoiding. Like Job, we should avoid everything that even has
the appearance of evil. (Job 1:1)

6. Be responsible. Like Job, we should assume responsibility to pray
to pray for the people around us and remind them of God. (Job 1:5)

7. Be praying. Like Job, we should pray as a way of life, abiding in
prayer and not just praying in emergencies. (Job 1:5)\

8. Be ready. Like Job, we should prepare ourselves for Satan's
attacks. (Job 1: 5)

9. Be worshipping. Like Job, we should praise God even when our
world falls apart. (Job 1:20-21)

10. Be believing anyway. Like job, we should
believe God no matter what the circumstances. (Job 1:22, 13:15)

That is a powerful list to help us live lives that will be blameless and upright in this ever-changing, crazy world.

Great quote: In this new community where Christ is head, things are different. Here people are less concerned with finding their life than with losing it for Christ. Here meekness, not muscle, is the mark of greatness. If the church is not radically different from the world, something is radically wrong. To be salt and light in the world implies a marked contrast between the way of life in the world and the way of life in the church. Anonymous