Whoever pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity and honour.  Proverbs 21:21 (NIV).

Righteous men and women are in short supply.

So what’s a righteous person? To be righteous is to be just, holy and virtuous. Find a role model for Jesus Christ and you’ve found him/her! For a righteous person is someone after God’s own heart. It’s a man or woman who knows that the only way to live life is God’s way. A righteous person knows that it’s never right to do wrong and never wrong to do right. As such, a righteous person is someone of high character and moral integrity.

Now don’t take this lightly. Don’t say, “I could never be that kind of person.” If you don’t aspire to being righteous, everyone loses out, and you more so than anyone else. For, as Psalm 112:6 reminds us, “Surely the righteous will never be shaken; they will be remembered forever.”

So live for Jesus, that’s what really matters. Live humbly, trusting only in Him. Without reservation put Jesus first in everything you say and do. Everything should narrow down to this single pursuit. You must walk and talk Jesus. There can be no faintheartedness, no wavering, no compromise. You must live only, always, all for Jesus. As William Pierson Merrill, pastor of New York’s Brick Presbyterian Church wrote, “Rise up, O men of God! Have done with lesser things; Give heart and mind and soul and strength to serve the King of Kings.”