#16 QUESTION: EVER WONDER HOW TO GET IT RIGHT?

Life sometimes confronts us with new and strange situations, and we wonder how a Christian should cope. Remember your first day as a freshman in high school? Everyone else seemed to know where to go, how to act, and how to talk. You felt like you were the only one worrying about how to act and talk as a Christian should.

The Bible has a similar question, Psalms 119:9:

“How can a young man keep his way pure?”

Happily, the answer is found in the same verse, Psalms 119:9:

“How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.”

This is excellent advice as to how to keep our lives pure before God. Let God’s word guard them.

This requires reading and studying the Bible and practicing what is found therein. As far back in time as the giving of a written code—Moses Law—, God has expected his people to listen to His word and then obey it, Exodus 24:7:

“Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.”

The previously mentioned Psalm also makes this point of obedience, Psalm 119:4:

“You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently.

Reading the Bible is important for a Christian. The Apostle Paul commanded it to Timothy, 1 Timothy 4:13:

“Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.”

To understand the Bible, Timothy needed to spend time reading and studying it, 1 Timothy 2:15:

“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

Parents and grandparents can do much to teach children and grandchildren how to obey God. Lois and Eunice are good examples, 2 Timothy 1:5:

“I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.

Timothy had been taught God’s word by his mother and his grandmother.

For example, Timothy would have probably been taught what Jesus said about how to treat others, Luke 6:31:

“And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.”

This excellent principle of living is called the golden rule—do unto others as you would have them do to you.

Another example of what Timothy probably would have been taught would be what Jesus said about prayer, Matthew 6:5-8:

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Prayer must not be hypocritical.

We do not have written examples of Timothy obeying what he learned from Paul, his mother, and grandmother. But we can be sure that what he learned and practiced was Biblical, because Paul wrote two letters to Timothy and did not include a call for Timothy to repent.

The question posed in the title as to how to live right is answered by reading, studying, and obeying the Bible. In other words, we must put into action what we learned from reading the Bible.

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