Day 279: Hold On to What is Good

1 Thessalonians 5:19-22

Do not stifle the Holy Spirit.  Do not scoff at prophecies, but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good. Stay away from every kind of evil.

Something that I’ve been thinking about this past week is, the things we remember. It’s very interesting when you think about it. We as people have certain memories that are locked in, things we will never forget. The advice, the moments, the quotes, the smells, the melodies, the feelings, the things that stick with us for the rest of our lives. It’s crazy how everything we’ve ever been told or heard or seen throughout our entire lives, there’s that one thing that stays with us forever. Something our parents told us when we were fourteen stuck with us and will still resonate with us at thirty. It seems like many times we remember the things forever that had a good impact on us, sometimes we remember the bad. But the quotes and advice continues to help us through life. It’s like we unconsciously choose what to remember and can call upon those memories at different points in our lives to help us through certain moments.  I think Paul is getting at something similar to this in the above scripture.

Paul tells the people of Thessalonica to hold on what is good and stay away from every kind of evil. But before he says that, he tells them not to stifle the holy spirit, or scoff at prophecies but to test everything that is said. Everything should line up with the word of God. Test the things that people say to you. Sometimes we are Christians can be naive, and believe what people say, just because they say it in the name of Jesus. As it says in Matthew 7:21-23,

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

We must test the words of people because their are many  who claim to serve God but their hearts are far from it. At one point or another we might have been one of those people. We cannot be swayed by the words of liars and deceivers.

When we do find what is true when we know what is good. Hold on to it. Hold on to the things that are good. In doing so we are to stay away from from anything that is evil. I don’t know if you know but good and evil cannot cohabitate. It’s not a good mixture. But I talk about memories and the things we hold onto throughout our lives because we hold on to the things that are good for us. Even if we do hold on to things that are bad for us, or the things people have done to us to hurt us, we eventually come to the realization that it is not good for us. So  we let those things go. However the things that are good tend to stick with us forever, and that’s the beautiful thing about life. We are so often under the impression that we as humans remember the bad things over the good, however that is not always true. No matter how angry we are at someone, and we may not want to admit it, there is so much good we see in them.

For a long time I was angry at my father, because I felt like he walked out on us. So I harbored anger towards him, or I tried. I wanted to be angry at him and I wanted him to know I was angry. However whenever I talked about him I could only talk about the good things. The things he taught me as a child, how he raised me, the great impact he had on my life, how I am a spitting image of him. And every time I saw him and had a plan to tell him off, my love for him always overpowered my anger towards him. That’s my dad, no amount of anger could ever stop me from loving him no matter how hard I tried to put on the mask of anger, only love came through. Because I remembered the good times, which were so much greater than the bad.

-Dyamond

All this to say, hold on to what is good and let it stick with you. Test the words of people, and do away with all evil. Remember the good things. It’s easier than we think.

Response/Prayer Time

Take the time to respond to what we discussed today. Whatever resonated with you today, allow it to guide your prayer. Pray about whatever is on your heart. Remember that prayer is just a conversation with God.

I love you and I hope you have an amazing day or evening! Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 280!