"Protected..."

"For Thou, LORD, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt Thou compass him as with a shield." (Psalms 5:12) What more do we need to say to that?!!! Yes, we have been made holy by the washing of the blood of Jesus Christ; and some can argue as to whether or not our righteousness much matters after that; but as to our movement upon this earth, between the time that we accept Christ into our hearts, and the time that we stand before Him; well, let's just say, we do not want to be found naked before Him: but clothed in righteousness! But; as for being protected in this world, there is only one way for us to be assured of that, and that is by us loving Him enough to become righteous!!! He has given us all the tools that we need to practice righteousness; and the only thing stopping us from doing so, is ourselves! One thing that we must always remember, is that the Holy Spirit is a Gentleman, and that He will not force us into submission; He will however, say, "No; don't do that!"; but then, it is still up to us to submit to His warning! Again, as with most all the Psalms, the last verse is the punch-line, or the summary as to what that Psalm is meant to say. In this verse, we have two very important messages that are being put forth. The first being that the LORD will bless the righteous; which goes without question for those of us that are washed in the blood of Jesus Christ; however, what we are in Christ, is that we have been made free from sin; what we are not, is free to sin! We must strive for righteousness, for He is righteous! We cannot think that just because He has washed away all of our sins, that we are therefore free to sin; because we are not! Secondly; the word "favour", that speaks of, "with favour wilt Thou compass him as with a shield", is speaking about delight; as in, He is delighted in us. This works two ways, in that He is delighted in us because we are covered by the blood of His Son; but He is also delighted in us because we emulate His Son; which means, that not only are we washed by His Love for us, but that we are loving Him back; which is really what it is all about... "He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the Truth is not in him. But whoso keepth His word, in him verily is the Love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in Him. He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked." (1 John 2:4-6) ...and yet, we are not quite there...Yet...