"Exercise Justice" in Walking With God - Conclusion of Pursuing "True Righteousness"

It is not easy for imperfect humans to pursue righteousness.  We must strip off the old personality with its sinful practices and put on the new one.  The Bible says that the new personality is "being made new" through accurate knowledge.  (Colossians 3:9, 10)  The words "being made new" indicated that putting on the new personality is a continuing process, one that requires diligent effort.  No matter how hard we try to do what is right, there are times when our sinful nature causes us to stumble in thought, word, or deed. -Romans 7:14-20; James 3:2. 

How should we view setbacks in our efforts to pursue righteousness?  Of course, we should not want to minimize the seriousness of sin. At the same time, we must never give up, feeling that our shortcomings make us unfit to serve Jehovah. Our gracious God had made provision  to restore sincerely repentant ones to his favor.  Consider the reassuring words of the apostle John:  "I am writing you  these things that you may  not commit a sin." But then he realistically added: "Yet, if anyone does commit a sin [because 0f inherited imperfection],  we have a helper with  the Father, Jesus Christ."  (1 John 2:1) Yes, Jehovah has provided Jesus' ransom sacrifice so that we might acceptably serve Him in spite of our sinful nature.  Does that not move us to want to do our best to please Jehovah? 

Next time:"Exercise Justice" in Walking With God -The Good News and Divine Justice

From the book: Draw Close to Jehovah