Godly Character

     In order to be a shining light for Jesus one thing you need to do is make sure to develop Godly character and be ready to change the way you live.
There is a Psalm and a few other passages in the Bible that show just what character is Godly and what to do to develop it.
     In Psalm 101 David is professing his godliness and also shows some of the characteristics of ungodly people.  In verse 2, David he says, "I will be careful to lead a blameless heart . . . I will walk in my house with blameless heart"  Blameless means innocent of wrongdoing, or guiltless.  David promised God that he would never do wrong. We should as followers of God strive to, like David, live with a blameless heart before God.  In verses 3-8, David warns us of the characters of the ungodly and what to stay away from.
     In verse 3 and 4, David tells us "the deeds of faithless men I hate . . . men of perverse heart shall be far from me".  Perverse means turned away from or rejecting what is right or good; wicked or corrupt.  David does not what to do anything with men who do what is evil or corrupt in the eyes of God and we as Christians should not do evil or corrupt things in the eyes of God.
     In verse 5, David warns us from people who slander people behind their backs.  In our daily lives in this world we constantly hear people say mean things or rumors of other people behind their backs because it is somehow in human nature to discuss other people when they are not around.  We as Christs followers should, when we hear this happening, walk away or tell the people who are saying mean things to stop.  This may take some courage, but if we ask God to help us we will be able to do it.  Also in that verse David says, "whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, him will I not endure".  We need to watch that our hearts and minds do not  get overly proud and arrogant toward non-believers and those that are different than us.
     In verse 7, David says "No one who practices deceit will dwell in my house; no one who speaks falsely will stand in my presence".  If we are deceitful or misleading in our words and acts, then the ungodly will never be able to see our light, so we need to watch what we say and how we act to non-believers.  Some one who speaks falsely, usually say false things that hurt others, but unlike people who gossip, they might say them in front of the people they are hurting.  We need to be careful of what we say to others and make sure that we "do not let any unwholesome talk come out of [our] mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen" (Ephesians 4:29).
     Well, this is along post so I will go a little more quickly with the next part.  A passage that we can look at to help us to build up Godly characteristics is Matthew 5 verses 3-9, which are the beatitudes!  In verse 3, "poor in spirit" is the character of humility.  This means we need to realize we need to depend on God.  In verse 4 mourning is in this sense mourning for those who are lost and caring about them.  In verse 5, we need to gain meekness, and then we will become sons of God and inherit the kingdom of God.  Meekness is  submission and self-control.  God wants us to be faithful and trust him with endurance and patience. In verse 6, we need to be always hungry and thirsty for more of Gods word, because this will keep us alive in Christ.  If we spiritually die, then those who don;t know God will never get to know him, so encourage everyone to read this to dig deeply in Gods word all the time.  In verse 8, we need to be "pure in heart", which means we need to guard our hearts from evil and watch what we think or do because that what gets in our hearts.  In verse 9, we need to be able to stand up and keep the peace between everyone, so people can see our light.  Verses 10 and 11 we need to be persistent for God.  If we are persistent and get persecuted or made fun of, for God we will blessed and we will gain our reward in heaven.  Our great reward will be a rich welcome into heaven!!

(If you want to look at more characteristics that will help us to shine our lights, you can look at 2 Peter 1:5-11)!!