Monthly Archive

If someone were to ask you, “Do you love life?”

What would you say?

How about Good Days? Do you See Good Days? Looking back on this week, did you see more good days, bad days, or so-so days.

I think we all want to live a life that we can say we honestly love. To love our family, our work, our neighbors, who we are and what we do. We all wake up every morning and hope that we have a good day, that everything goes as planned, that we cross a few things off our To Do lists. That we have fun. That we enjoy success in all we do.

Peter, in the Bible, wanted his readers to love life and see good days. In 1 Peter 3:10-12 he reminded those who would read his letter, of something King David had written many years before-

Whoever would love life

and see good days

must keep their tongues from evil

and their lips from deceitful speech.

They must turn from evil and do good,

they must seek peace and pursue it.

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous

and his ears are attentive to their prayer,

but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.

So there it is. Five simple steps to loving life and seeing good days.

Let’s review. To love life and see good days we need to:

1. Keep our tongues from evil.

Evil – profoundly immoral and malevolent; harmful or tending to harm.

This definition reminds me of Ephesians 4:29,  “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”

Keeping our tongues from evil means that we never say harmful words, only helpful words.

2. Keep our lips from deceitful speech.

Deceit – the action or practice of deceiving someone by concealing or misrepresenting the truth.

These first two principles for loving life and seeing good days both involve restricting what we say. James 3:2 says, “Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check.”

If we want to keep our tongues from evil and our lips from deceitful speech, silence is the key. Dallas Willard, in his book The Spirit of the Disciplines  writes a lot about the spiritual discipline of silence and shares the testimony of a young person entering the practice of silence – “The more I practice the discipline of silence the more I appreciate the strength of silence. The less I become skeptical and judgmental, the more I learn to accept the things I didn’t like about others the more I accept them as uniquely created in the image of God. The less I talk, the fuller are words spoken at an appropriate time.”

I think this young person loves life and sees good days.

3. Turn from evil.

We already looked at the definition of evil. Here we are directed to “turn” from evil. This makes me think of repentance, which many define as turning from one type of bad behavior to a good type of behavior. I like Dallas Willard’s definition of repentance in his book The Divine Conspiracy, “Radically changing the way we think about something.” We can never really turn from bad behavior if we don’t radically change the way we think about that behavior.

4. Do good.

Good – to be desired or approved of; pleasing and welcome; appropriate to a particular purpose; possessing or displaying moral virtue; showing kindness.

Psalm 100:5 says, “The LORD is good and his love endures forever.” From this verse I get the idea that God loves us and wants us to be happy. Our natural response to His love and goodness is to love others and be good to them.

5. Seek peace and pursue it.

The “peace” that Peter is referring to comes from the Hebrew word shalom, which is defined as “completeness, soundness, welfare, peace and success.”

We seek, pursue and find true peace through Jesus Christ. Paul writes in Romans 5, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Experiencing peace with God makes it much easier to experience peace with our neighbors, co-workers and family. 

Pablo comes to mind when I think of these traits.  Pablo came here to the Home For Needy Children in Oaxaca, Mexico, about four years ago after graduating from the FFHM Bible Institute in Baja, Mexico.  He started working as a house parent for the little boys and later for the teenage boys. He also helped and continues to help with grounds keeping and maintenance.  He preaches and teaches here as well as at rehab centers in the area.  He is a fountain of encouragement and prayer for those men struggling with addictions.  He does a lot of good. 

But that wasn’t always the case.  As a young man he was himself addicted to drugs, did a lot of bad things, and rarely saw good days.  His life was miserable.  One day he came to the end of his rope.  People had been telling him about Jesus and His great love and power, and how Jesus could give him new hope and a new life.  Pablo asked Jesus to take over his life.  Jesus did and Pablo became a new creature in Christ.  He radically changed the way he thought about life and God.  Now everyday is a good day and he loves his new Life in Christ.  

When you go to bed tonight, think about your day. Did you see a good day? Did you love life today? If not, tomorrow might be a better day if you reach out to God and ask Him to –

Keep your tongue from evil

Keep your lips from deceitful speech

Turn from evil

Do good

Seek peace and pursue it

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