Don’t you love instructions that are simple, do this, don’t do that? I sure do. I like to know what I’m supposed to do and avoid.

Paul, the apostle, wrote these words to Timothy, telling him as a person of God to run from the wrong things and pursue the right ones.

DON’T do, participate, or hang out with evil.
DO race after and live righteously.

How do we know what is evil and what is good? A good start is to read this full chapter. It’s full of great instruction. Know this: anything that is against God is evil. Anything that draws your attention away from Him is not good. Not good at all. It may seem lovely and fun and exciting, but it is not. It will lead you down a path of destruction that you do not want. Run from that as hard as you can. Even if it feels so good, run from it.

Conversely, the things that draw your attention TO God are good. Paul mentions some attributes of this pursuit of righteousness: faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. Hmmm…. do those maybe match up with something we’ve read in Galatians 5:22?

When we allow the Spirit of God who lives within the believer to control our comings and goings, our thinking and doing, then we are in pursuit of righteousness – right standing before God. We will be living that godly life, revealed by our faith, love, perservance, and gentleness.

Do you see how God says to run FROM one thing and run TO something else?

That’s because He knows that as you run from evil, you’ll need something to be running to or you’ll just be running and lose heart and purpose. We must replace the thing we’ve loved with a new thing to love or we’ll go right back to the old way. The evil way. The anti-God way.

It’s up to us to choose. Day in and day out. #ChooseWell.

Coffee, Bible, Journal.

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