Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Monday January 18, 2010

Most of my daily thoughts for these articles come from what I call random reading. When I am not writing I am reading and this reading may involve intense study for the sermons etc or I may be reading a situation such as holding hands with a dying woman as her son sits by trying to comfort his daughter as the tears stream down their face. My thought could be, "Just what is God saying here?" The answers may amaze you.

During a time of random reading the following leaped off the page, into my mind and heart and now it is pouring forth from my pen. (This sounds so much more profound than "I am typing").

"Keep true, never be ashamed of doing right, decide on what you think is right and stick to it."

This sounds like old fashioned Victorian type of advice and it is as it comes from the pen of George Eliot. You already know George was the pen name of Mary Ann Evans. Interesting comes nowhere near the whole story. But the advice is timeless. The failure to stick to the truth, to waffle on what you are convinced is right is sign of defeating inner weakness.

George/Mary Ann's phrase, "Decide on what you think is right" is a guidepost that many would do well to follow. Their life would change and they would have deep inner peace.

Yet, the Christian must take a step farther: we must check and see if what we think is right is really so. How do we do this? Simple; but seldom easy.

A simple question is imperative: Does what I think is right measure up to what God says is right? Is my thinking along this line in harmony with what the Bible teaches? When this is done, I am assenting to the superiority of God's stated thoughts on a given subject or principle of living. In everyday life I may think that 4+3 = 9. I may be very sincere in this thinking. I would check with a math teacher first and find that when the teacher was finished laughing, I was wrong and a good teacher would show how and where I was wrong. And knowing me, I would say to myself; "Well, what does the teacher know?"

Sounds silly doesn't it. No sillier than checking what the master book of living, the Bible, says and then ignoring it's correction of my erroneous thinking. What I think is important, but what the Bible says is more important.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2010 Use with credit.

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