Everyone wants a life that is preserved and fresh and which is refreshing to others. However, most people feel drained. It is easy to fall into a survival trap and life can sometimes feel like a constant struggle. How do we live a full life and keep from being destroyed by the forces of evil.
For the Lord loves justice
And does not forsake His godly ones;
They are preserved forever,
But the descendants of the wicked will be cut off. Psalm 37:28
The Lord promises to preserve His godly ones. The godly are those who live according to His ways and they live in His love by doing His commandments. They are not on a path of destruction but on a path that leads to life. How does the Lord preserve His godly ones? He teaches us to hate evil. The meaning of evil is to “cause grief”. The godly seek to be a blessing to others and not return evil for evil.
Hate evil, you who love the Lord, Who preserves the souls of His godly ones; He delivers them from the hand of the wicked. Psalm 97:10
The Lord loves justice and He wants His godly ones to love justice and do justice also.
Guarding the paths of justice, And He preserves the way of His godly ones. Proverbs 2:8
There is a temptation to return evil or to cause someone else grief if they have caused us grief but the Lord tells us to depart from evil. We must watch how we live so that we do not do evil.
The highway of the upright is to depart from evil; He who watches his way preserves his life. Proverbs 16:17
Evil does not destroy the soul of a person unless they do it. We must never do evil. Our soul is who we are on the inside. Our body houses our soul. Our soul is the unique person that each of us are and it is our mind, will and emotions. We need not fear man. Man can never destroy our soul. We are the only ones who can allow our soul to be destroyed and it is by allowing evil to control our thoughts and actions.
Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Matthew 10:28
The Lord teaches us to fear Him. What does it mean to fear the Lord?
“The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverted mouth, I hate. Proverbs 8:13
The fear of the Lord is to hate evil, pride and arrogance and the evil way. It is also to hate having a perverted mouth. Cussing is to have a perverted mouth. Sometimes people will use “slang” cuss words, which they don’t feel like they are actually cussing but in a sense they are. Always ask yourself, “would I use this language around Jesus if He was sitting here with me?” When we make decisions without praying we are being prideful and arrogant. If we think we “know” what is right without reading what the Lord says about something then we are being arrogant.
By lovingkindness and truth iniquity is atoned for, And by the fear of the Lord one keeps away from evil. Proverbs 16:16
It is by the fear of the Lord that one keeps away from evil. God’s Word produces in us reverence for God, which is the fear of God. When we fear God then we are protected from evil.
The fear of the Lord leads to life, So that one may sleep satisfied, untouched by evil. Proverbs 19:3
The ultimate destruction for man is when he rejects Jesus Christ and turns his back on what God has done for him by sending His Son to save him from eternal destruction. Man chooses hell for himself when he refuses to come to the Lord and receive the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ, so as to be saved from present and eternal destruction. Jesus Christ died, was buried and rose again for each person on earth. To fear the Lord is to have the greatest respect for Him and for what He did for each of us. He took our sin and death so that we can have His righteousness and life.
And it will be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people. Acts 3:23
Jesus was the revelation of God and He is God. He was the One who fulfilled the prophecies of the earlier prophets in the Old Testament. He is the Messiah and He is the Prophet who was coming that Moses prophesied about that we should listen to. Jesus is Lord of lords and King of kings. Every soul who does not listen to Jesus will be destroyed. Those who listen to Jesus and His Word will be preserved. When we do His commandments and keep His Word then we learn to fear Him. We are preserved by His lovingkindness and truth. Jesus prayed for His disciples that they would be protected from evil.
I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil. John 17:15
It is God’s design to preserve His children. We are preserved from the evil in the world by following the Lord and doing what He says. The Lord gives us this prayer and blessing in His Word.
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. I Thessalonians 5:23
The wonderful thing that the Lord does is no matter how much we have been destroyed by things in our past, when we come to Him then He makes us into a “new creature” and the “old things pass away”. He gives us a new start.
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. II Corinthians 5:17
