If We Don't Do Good, We Sin

James 4:17 “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and does not do it, sins.”

            Lord, from the time we are old enough to understand we are taught (if we have good parents), not to do certain things: no punching, no hitting, no pinching, no biting, no spitting, and no pulling hair.  When my boys were small children, I would recite this list to them each time they would go outside to play with the neighbor children until one day when I started,  my four year old told me “I know, Mommy…” and proceeded to recite the list back to me.  It was a glad day for he had memorized the list and I would not have to recite it again. However; because I was not always where I could see him, I’m not at all convinced that he or his brothers obeyed “The List” especially with each other.  So it is with Your “list”, Lord.  We can have the “Don’t List” memorized but will not always obey it, but at least we know when we are tempted to do them and at that point make that choice.

However; it seems harder, Lord, to learn and obey the “Do List”: do make your bed, do help with the dishes, do set the table, do pick up your clothes, do pick up your toys, and do wash your hands and face.  Or Your “DO List”: do read the Word, do pray, do fast, do treat others the way you want to be treated, do love your neighbor as yourself, do spend time with other believers, go to church, do be kind, discreet, gracious, merciful, good, and loving, and do share Your Gospel with a lost and dying world.

            Here You say it is just as sinful to do the “Don’ts” as it is to not do the “Dos”.
O dear Lord, please help me in both areas!