Always Choose to Do Right

If you know of an opportunity to do the right thing today, yet you refrain from doing it, you’re guilty of sin.

─ James 4:17 TPT

Callie closed her eyes. She didn’t want to see the truth represented on the scale at the doctor’s office. Six months previous, the doctor had told her what to do to return to a healthy weight and keep medications at bay, and yet, she hadn’t done it.

The words from John 4:17 rose up in her heart – if you know the right things to do, and don’t do them, you’ve sinned! She had shunned her conviction each time she opted to put the things she knew she shouldn’t into her body. She made excuses each time she decided not to walk the five miles a day she’d committed to with her accountability partner.

She hung her head as her doctor opened her chart in the examination room. “I know I didn’t do what I should have …” she began.

“I normally wouldn’t do this,” her doctor said. “But if you’ll go online and submit your calorie intake each day, as well as your total miles walked, on this chart and send it to me every week, I’ll give you another three months to get your numbers down to avoid medication.”

Callie smiled. “Thank you for the second chance. I will do it this time; I promise.” And she did because her promise wasn’t just to her doctor, but also to God. This time she wouldn’t let anything or anyone talk her out of her health.

We know doing wrong is sin. But James tells us in our verse today that sin is also not doing right. It is clearly a sin to lie, but it can also be a sin to know the truth and not tell it.

Today’s One Thing

Review your past few months and ask God to remind you where you may have missed an opportunity to do the right thing. Ask Him for His forgiveness; receive it, and ask Him to help you always choose to do right!

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