I have watched young people, and older people, live their lives pursuing righteousness over the world's acceptance and some stay in the fight and others have caved under the pressure of the moment. I have often thought that the reason this could potentially happen is because they knew they were supposed to be righteous, but maybe it wasn't cool to be righteous. Maybe they saw being righteous for what it wasn't, like the world, rather than for what it is, more Christ-like. If they had seen righteousness as being most pleasing to God maybe the outcome would have been different.
"See what high thoughts God has of the righteous, He looks upon them as more excellent than others, and His judgment is best worth praising. The saints have low thoughts of themselves; they overlook their own worth, like Moses who knew not that his face shined. The eye, though beautiful, does not see itself. Yet, as low thoughts as the righteous have of themselves, God has high thoughts of them. "Since Thou wast precious in My sight, thou hast been honorable," Isaiah 43:4. The Lord puts away the wicked like dross. The greatest man in the world, lacking holiness, is like Naaman, who was captain of the king's host and a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper, 2 Kings 5:1. A wicked man may be higher than others in nobility and worldly grandeur. A dunghill is higher than other ground, but it is never the better; it sends forth odious vapors." Thomas Watson
A clear vision of what God thinks, gives me a deeper desire to be righteous. Not out of duty, but out of a desire to please Him.
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