Psalm 1:6

     6 For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,

          but the way of the wicked leads to desrtuction. (NIV)

What does it mean to be "righteous"? The person who is right with God is not a person who decided to be righteous, but a person God forgave. God is the one who reaches out to us with his gospel of forgiveness, and he makes us his own by removing the guilt of our sins forever.

Look at the widow of Zarephath. She didn't choose God. She was outside Israel, both physically and spiritually. But when Israel rejected God, Elijah was sent outside the land to the village of Zarephath in the far northwest, and she was given all of the blessings God had given Israel in miniature: She was given bread, she was given the word of God, a prophet was sent to her, and for the first time in the Bible, she was even permitted to experience what the resurrection is all about when Elijah raised her son from the dead. And unlike Israel, she put her faith in God and trusted in God's word. She said, "I know that you are a man of God, and the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth" (1 Kings 17:24).

The Lord watched over her, and made her his own. And the Lord will watch over you. Trust in him; trust his forgiveness, and all of his other blessings will be yours; even eternal life in Jesus.