Choose Godspeed!

Proverbs 16:17 The highway of the upright is to depart from evil; He who keeps his way preserves his soul.

Mark 1:15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

Proverbs says the “highway of the upright is to depart from evil”. It’s a highway — a way of life so to speak. And this proverb coincides with the central teaching of Yeshua (Jesus) — “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” What does it mean to repent? The Greek Word is “metanoia” which simply means to change your mind about sin or to depart from evil.

Repentance is essentially a new attitude about the way I conduct my life. I don’t expect perfection while remaining in this mortal body — but a lifestyle of repentance means that I choose to live my life set apart unto the Lord, in communion with His Holy Spirit who lives in me, constantly turning away from and/or confessing my sins. Repentance does not involve rehearsing guilt, regret, or sins of the past, because true repentance and confession removes those from our conscience and the Lord declares them to be as far as the east is from the west!

Choose the highway of the upright and speed your way through life’s journey to the Kingdom of Heaven which awaits you. The enemy would love to sidetrack or distract you with the enticement of sin — but even if he succeeds temporarily, you can always repent — and speedily, get back on the right road –the highway of the upright.

Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy Devotions. This devotional was originally published on Worthy Devotions and was reproduced with permission.

How to display the above article within the Worthy Suite WordPress Plugin.

[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]

When Elijah went up to to heaven, Elisha took up his mantle and walked in the power of Elijah. The Hebrew word for mantle is "aderet". It's root word is "adir", which means excellent, gallant, glorious, mighty, noble and worthy! Elijah was a man with these qualities. The mantle that Elisha received from Elijah meant a calling which was powerful. Elisha had earned it. When the two first met, Elisha had slaughtered the oxen he was plowing with, and burned them on the wood of their yoke as an offering. Then he followed and served the prophet until the day Elijah was taken miraculously to Heaven.

One of the paradoxes of our walk is that God’s gifts often require work on our part. After He delivered the Israelites from the Egyptians, the Lord led them to the Promised land and told them He was going to "give" it to them. It wasn't long before they realized, however, that they were going to have to fight battles and overcome fortified cities in order to inhabit the land. God did promise that they would not have to fight the battles on their own, but even with this divine advantage the Israelites themselves would be required to destroy their enemies – they would still need to fight.

A good pastor friend of ours told us that his congregation was experiencing some hardships and division. How often does this happen among us? It breaks my heart -- and I believe the Lord weeps over this too.

I came across an old article about "fake physicians". According to this article, many American citizens could be receiving medical treatment from doctors who lied on their medical school loan applications and used the money to pay a broker for fake documents. One guy was arrested and later admitted that he was paid beaucoup bucks to hand out approximately a hundred phony medical documents claiming that his clients completed their training! Can you imagine?!

I came across a powerful parable written by a Haitian pastor illustrating to his congregation the need for total commitment to the Lord.

We arrived at the airport late Thursday night with our bags and our kiddos only to find out that our flight was canceled because of a freak accident -- a tractor ran into the plane, of all things! So we repacked our ourselves tightly into a small rental car to make the two hour drive to get back home to Arad in the middle of the night. Our flight was postponed till Sunday.

There is a tale told of that great English actor Macready. An eminent preacher once said to him: "I wish you would explain to me something."