Seek Good and Not Evil

“Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken. Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.” (Am 5:14-15 AV)

 In this day and age, this is difficult to do.  Our entire culture is geared towards publishing the evil and hiding the good.  The world deliberately reports on the evil and ignores human interest stories.  Our entertainment industry will default to the evil as their mainstay and the good is relegated to less known or popular venues.  All one has to look at is this past Christmas season and a break from the Hallmark channel some did for the sake of more biblical standards of marriage.  This is not acceptable with a world that hates God.  It is not enough they have their own networks and venues to spew their evil.  They wish to cancel anyone or anything that would offer a different view.  The evil is ever before us and the good is hard to find.  But that doesn’t mean Amos’ instructions are any less important.  In fact, they are increasingly more important.  The child of God who wishes to have an intimate relationship with God by faith and obedience will seek out that which is good rather than that which is evil.

Electronic entertainment is a bane in this world.  All it does is invite the public to seek out the evil.  From television to the movie theatre, to the cell phone, the public browses any and all forms of media input looking for the worst and not the best.  At least this is the pattern.  What is interesting is when given a choice, the good makes more money for its producers than the evil.  Go woke go broke is real.  The question we need to ask ourselves is when we sit down for an idle moment, what is it that we seek?  Do we seek the good?  Or do we seek the evil?  There is no middle ground.  Do we use this technology to edify?  Or, do we use it to destroy?  There is no neutral position.  That which does not edify, harms.  Just like that which we consume, it will either help or harm.  One cannot go to a restaurant and assume there is something on the menu that neither helps nor harms.  What we put into the body, soul, and spirit will have an effect.  The good will do good and the evil will do evil.

This whole idea of seeking is what strikes me this morning.  Our five senses desire to be stimulated.  There must be input.  That is the way we were created.  It is the means by which we increase.  We want to see, hear, touch, taste, and smell.  Information and pleasure come from these.  Therefore, we seek.  We engage our senses as an expression of life.  We seek.  But what is it that we seek?  Do we look for good?  To we know where good dwells.  We know where evil resides.  Going in the opposite direction might be a better option.  What is it that we reach for?  What is it we set our gaze upon?  What do we consume?  Amos tells us to look for that which is right.  Avoid that which is not.  It all starts with a direction.  The objective is to seek out that which God provides as a blessing and not that which will harm.