“Does anyone want to live a life that is long and prosperous?13 Then keep your tongue from speaking evil and your lips from telling lies!14 Turn away from evil and do good. Search for peace, and work to maintain it.” Psalm 34:12-14
Everyone desires long life even people with health challenges at birth. They have hope for a better tomorrow and most times the better tomorrow comes miraculously. Remember John 9 the man born blind, remember Barthmeus, Mark 10, remember the lame man at the beautiful gain, Acts 3 he did not die lame. There is an electronic company one of its products is Smart TV – it’s called LG -Life it’s Good.
I watched a video clip of a supposedly wise old man, he was asking, if heaven is a better place as Christians claim why don’t they die now and leave immediately? I commented by saying we don’t die now because life it’s good. Besides, the maximum number of years we can live here is 1000 from the statics of Methuselah who lived the longest with 969 years, and when we go to heaven we shall live there forever and ever. No need to rush to heaven!
So the issue is not about the desire to live long it is about how to live long. The Bible, the manual for living a long and prosperous life through many of his writers gave us some of those principles and nuggets, let us look at three of them.
1. Watch your tongue. “Keep your tongue from evil. “ Vs 12. Words are like eggs when spoken you cannot retrieve them. Your apologies for bad words do not erase it from the minds it rarely stops people from retaliation even from generation to generation. “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” Prov 18:21. Stop terminating your life, future, career, marriage, or business with your little tongue. Two ministers were discussing, as they finished unknown to the other one, that the phone was not switched off the first one started bad-mouthing the second one. When the other one interrupted and made it clear he was listening the first one froze. Pleaded for forgiveness the deed is done! What you cannot say in front of someone don’t say behind him.
2. Stop lying and doing evil. “ keep your lips ….from telling lies” V13.Lies can only protect you temporarily. The Yorubas say- bi iro ba lo logun Odin ooto a ba” You can cover your lies as long as you want, truth will one day catch up with it. Rev 21:8-all liars will go to hell. Telling a lie may not kill you immediately but can kill the victims immediately.
Remember the people that lied to get Naboth killed. 1 King 21. Many businesses have nose-dived and business owners have committed suicide because of lies. Today’s hackers, scammers, and Ponzi schemes drivers, are killing people in thousands by their lies and deceits. Stop destroying people by telling lies and doing evil things.
Some ministries and churches are built on lies, false miracles, only to lead the vulnerable members to premature death. Through lies and deceit, many government officials have swindled people’s salaries, pensions, and money for infrastructural developments and these have lead to the untimely death of many. If you keep telling lying and doing evil people will lie against you at a point. Stop lying the Bible warns to enable longevity. Rev 21.8 All liars will go to hell!
3. Do good . “do good, search for peace, and work to maintain it” V14. If you seriously want to live long, cultivate the habit of doing good. What does it mean to do good? It has two platforms. Firstly, living godly, honest lives and secondly, helping others with good intentions and motives. You can immensely increase your life span by avoiding living “a bad lifestyle”
Eating junk food including addiction to cigarettes, alcohol, cocaine, heroines etc.Joining wrong companies/ peer groups. Attending wild parties. Engaging in raping people, gangsterism, kidnapping, banditry, and prostitution will lead to early death for perpetrators and their victims. Rather build lives, give your life to Christ, preach the gospel of Jesus bring people who are living unholy lives to live holy lives.
Pray for people. Help the needy. Don’t abuse your position as politicians, ministers of God, professors, businessmen, market women, contractors, members of parliament and judiciary. Fight for the oppressed. Run away from corruption.
In your marriage seek peace, not divorce and separation, think of the future of your children. You may remarry but don’t expose your children to stepparents. Do good, and contribute to the growth of your church financially and in kind. There is no end to the amount of good you can do, but doing good will help you to live long.
Conclusion: “With long life, I will satisfy him and show him my salvation. “Psalm 91:16. Meaning the long-term plan of God is for you to live long on earth. However, our life span depends largely on our choices. As they say, you cannot plant apples and harvest mangoes.
Are there some lifestyles, speaking that you are currently engaged in that have the potential to terminate your life prematurely and that of your family or neighbours, then stop it. Are there some principles you know can help you fulfil your life goals and help you to live long, God has sent me to you today to start it right away. Apart from not smoking, and consuming alcohol, all my life I don’t drink even juice for the past twenty years because of sugar content, only water. It is not a sin to drink juice but it is not good for your body. That is what the Holy Spirit taught me this morning you can learn it too and practice. By his grace, I pray we shall live long in good health and in great prosperity in Jesus name.
Shalom–
O taste and see that the Lord is good.(Psalm 34:8). I have tasted and found that the Lord is good. I do testify that the Lord is good.Join me to taste him.
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