We Know Better

We Know Better

“For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.”

‭‭James‬ ‭4:15-16‬

“Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”

‭‭James‬ ‭4:17‬

We know when we do wrong. Just as we know when we do something right. We are born with a moral compass. And as we age this compass is effected by our upbringing, our experiences, our knowledge and our interactions. We learn what we are taught. Our influences shape and mold us. I was taught right from wrong and I knew better. 

My grandmother used to always, disappointedly, say to me - “I don’t know why you did that, you know better”.  I’m not sure if it was the disappointment in myself or hearing those words that was the worst. 

Over time our compass either gets more true or less true. The trueness of our compass is internal. And for the most part, society does a pretty good job of teaching us right from wrong, exposing us to consequences and shaping us, somewhat, with direction. 

For a long time I knew what I was doing was wrong. There was no one to blame. What I didn’t know is why I did all those things. I mean, I could point to certain things in my life and say “I did this or that probably because of this”.  A lot of my wrongdoing, and undoing was because of a poor example in childhood followed by a lot of poor choices in adulthood. 

There’s no one else to blame. We place too much emphasis on what caused what we do. Or what we lacked or didn’t have. We point the finger at everyone but ourselves.  

This isn’t another tirade about what people are or aren’t doing - it is merely pointing out that we can’t fix ourselves.  A life devoid of God will be filled with sin and evil. Period. 

Sure we can try. And sure we might be successful, for a little while. But unless we truly put our faith and trust in God, we will always turn toward the darkness. No matter what we know, we will always live in sin, unless we look toward God. 

God is our light. We must turn to Him for guidance and direction. We have to turn from sin and toward Him. God is our strength when we are weak.  He is always good, never evil. He is righteous and holy. And we should be in communion with Him always.  We will sin, less, when we are going toward God, than if we turn away from Him. 

So much easier said than done, right?  So much harder to do when life throws you struggles, right?

I used to get test anxiety in school. I absolutely loathed test time. I couldn’t sleep the night before, barely ate and my stomach was always a wreck. 

My test anxiety was a result of poor preparation. I never liked to study. My mind would wander. I would get bored and soon after I started studying, I would stop. I hated tests because I never prepared for them. And my idea of preparation was not adequate enough for the results needed from the test. 

Life’s trials are the same way. When we fail to prepare for what may come, the result is poor outcomes.  

So, throw in some bad decisions, mixed with poor preparation and the outcome is disastrous.  

This is why I am so intent on the following;

Read your Bible, a lot. 

Pray, a lot. 

Be in conversation with like-minded Christian’s. 

Gather with two or more, in His name. 

Be equally yoked with believers.

Raise your children to be Godly. 

Share the Gospel. 

Disciple. 

Repent. 

Repeat, often. 

We can’t expect to face life’s troubles unprepared and expect a great outcome.  

We have to prepare and we have to want to prepare.  I struggle some days to prepare. I struggle to get in God’s Word and pray earnestly. Some days I’m tired. Some days I’m in a mood. Some days I’m agitated or frustrated. All the things that make my preparation less-likely to happen, happen. 

But we have to. At a point in our lives we turned ourselves over to Christ. We knew we couldn’t do it on our own and that we needed Him. Nothing changed there. We still do. And just because our circumstances change, our love for Him or His love for us, shouldn’t. 

He will never leave us or forsake us - yet we are so fragile and flaky, that a small wind blows us away from Him. 

Prepare yourself, train, build knowledge and hone your compass so that it’s true North will point to God in times of difficulty. There is Light in this dark world and it has always been there. 

We know better.

“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.”

‭‭James‬ ‭4:7-10‬