Always Have Hope

7 Do not let your heart envy sinners,
    but always be zealous for the fear of the LORD.
18 There is surely a future hope for you,
    and your hope will not be cut off.

Proverbs 23:17-18

The right choice isn’t always the easiest one.

In fact, more times than not, there’s always some kind of temptation to stray from what you know is right and instead do wrong. Whether it’s pressure from friends or even just your own heart telling you you’ll be much happier on a different route, following the correct path in life is difficult.

Giving into sin is one option, but what’s the other? According to verse 17, the other option is to ‘be zealous for the fear of the Lord’. Now what does that mean? The term ‘fear’ has several different meanings, but the one correct in this context would be ‘respect or reverence’.

So, in other words, contrary to following the path of sin, we are called to be zealous or enthusiastic for the fear of the Lord. When we see an unbeliever doing something that is appealing, yet we know it’s wrong, instead of wishing we could do what they’re doing, our response should be to hold tight to what is right out of respect for the Lord.

Why?

The next verse answers this for us. By definition, Christians are called to follow Christ. This should be enough of a reason to strive to do things God’s way, but here, Solomon gives us another reason why we shouldn’t envy those in sin.
He promises us hope.

Sure, following Christ may be hard now, and yes, we’ll have to make many sacrifices in order to live our lives in a godly manner, BUT God won’t leave us to struggle with our temptations alone. “And your hope will not be cut off.”

In this life, we won’t fight evil alone, for the Lord is with us, AND in eternity there will be no more struggle against sin. So have hope!