Are you departing from evil?

Good verse to kick the week off with:



Proverbs 16:6



6 In mercy and truthAtonement is provided for iniquity;And by the fear of the LORD one departs from evil.



God sure has shown us some mercy hasn't he! We deserve hell because of our sin. But the truth came in Jesus Christ who provide atonement for our iniquity which is our sin. That is what the first part of this verse is telling us. I am praising the Lord this morning for that fact! God loves us so much. To send His Son to die for me is really hard to even comprehend. I am not worthy but God thinks I am and that is all that matters.



Now look at the second part of the verse. Two things I want you to catch. First we should fear the Lord. I believe it is a combination of out right fear because after all He is God. But also a reverance and an awe for being God. Kinda of like a good father. I always had a healthy fear of my dad beacuse he would whip me when I did wrong but I also respected him and do more each day as our relationship continues to grow. It is the same with God only to a much higher level. This verse then goes onto say when we fear God we depart from evil. What is evil? Sin! When we fear God we will depart from sin. If we are continuing in our sin we need to check two things. First do we fear God? Obviously not according to this verse and second are we truly saved. If we are continuing to practice a habitual sin it may be an indicator that our hearts have not been changed. Let me clear we all make mistakes and sin from time to time and that is our fleshly nature. That does nto mean you are not saved. But when a sin is a normal practice in our life we had better examine ourselves before God.



So this morning are you living with or departing from evil this morning? It is a serious question!



Tom