MAKE YOUR LIFE SUCCESSFUL!

Conclusion of Avoid Envying Wrongdoers

Fortunately, Asaph did not stay in this state of despair for long.  He quickly cam to realize that the seeming peace of the wicked was nothing but an illusion-and a temporary one at that!  He exclaimed:  "Surely on slippery ground is where you place them.  You have made them fall to ruins.  O how they have become an object of astonishment as in a moment!  How they have reached their end, have been brought to their finish through sudden terrors!"  (Verses 18, 19) Many of your peers are likewise "on slippery ground."  Sooner or later their ungodly behavior will catch  up with them, resulting perhaps in an unwanted pregnancy, a sexually transmitted disease, even imprisonment or death!  Worse yet, they suffer alienation from God. -James 4:4.

A young Witness in Spain observed this truth firsthand.  As a youth, she led a double life, being deeply involved with a group of godless youths.  Before long, she fell in love with one of them-a drug addict.  Though she abstained from using drugs herself, she purchased drugs for him.  "I even helped him insert the needle,"  she admits.  Fortunately, this sister was brought to her senses and restored to spiritual health.  But how shocked she was to learn some time later that he drug using boyfriend had died of AIDS.  Yes, just as the psalmist said, godless people are "on slippery ground."  Some may die unexpectedly as a result of their loose life-style.  As for the rest, unless they change their ways, they will in the near future face "the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with his powerful angels in a flaming fire, as he brings vengeance upon those who do not know God and those who do not obey the good news about our Lord Jesus." -2 Thessalonians 1:7, 8.

How foolish it is, then, to envy "those who do not know God"! Really, it is those who know Jehovah and who have the hope of living forever that are to be envied.  A young brother in Japan came to that realization.  As a youth, he too "wanted more freedom." He explains:  "I thought I was missing out on something.  Then I realized what my life would be without the truth.  I could see myself living 70 or 80 years and then dying.  But Jehovah hold out the hope of everlasting life!  Realizing this helped me to appreciate what I really had."  even so, remaining faithful when surrounded by people who do not follow God's Laws is anything but easy.  What are some things you can do to resist those pressures?

Next time: Watch Your Associations!

Watchtower, 1999