What if We Believed?

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous

and his ears are attentive to their prayer,

but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. (I Peter 3:12)

What if we really believed this was true? How different would our lives be?

If we really believed that God's eye was watchful over the righteous person to prosper and protect them, then we would strive all the harder to make ourselves righteous. The fact that salvation is based on grace does not mean that wickedness and righteousness amount to nothing any more. It does not mean that our righteous and holy God suddenly stopped caring about just judgment and righteous rewards. No! Grace should drive us toward righteous living, not away from it. Grace sets us free to obey God. It doesn't give us a license to sin (Romans 6:15). But so many treat it that way. Righteousness still matters, believer! It still counts for something! As the psalmist says, "The righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all (Psalm 34:19)."

If we really believed that God's ear is tuned to listen attentively to the prayer of the righteous person how would it change the way we live? How would it change the way we pray and who we ask to pray for us? This verse states that God is more apt to hear and answer the prayers of the righteous person. Has God been ignoring your prayers, believer? Perhaps there is a reason. If you will not listen to God and heed His instruction by obeying His commands, then tell me why the Almighty should bend His ear to listen to you and heed your requests? That isn't likely to happen, but as James says "the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working" (James 5:16). 

And if we really believed that the Lord sets His face against those who do evil to punish and oppose them, then we would all shutter at the thought of willfully disobeying Him. We would finally know why Scripture calls blessed those men who "do not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers" (Psalm 1:1). We would know why the psalmist set his heart to delight in the law of the Lord and meditate on it day and night (Psalm 1:2). And perhaps we would for the first time begin to see how important the instruction of God's Word is. For it is a lamp to our feet and a light to guide us down the paths that lead to eternal life (Psalm 119:105). If you turn aside from it into wickedness, "you can be sure that your sin will find you out" (Numbers 32:23).

So read this verse one more time, and this time...believe it!

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous

and his ears are attentive to their prayer,

but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. (I Peter 3:12)