Sometimes I like to read over the adult Sunday school lesson because I miss it when I take the kids back to have class. I’m always blessed when I do. Never will a study session end in void. You always take something away from it. I unfortunately don’t study as regularly as I should.
The other day the lesson was about a lot of things, but mostly how you spend your time. If you walk away from a lesson or sermon feeling a bit guilty and extremely inspired, then you know that message was meant for you.
No where in the Bible does it say you can’t feel good about what you do for others. That’s the wonderful part about good deeds. They’re so good for those on the receiving end, but it’s equally good for the givers in this world.
Doing good things in the name of the Lord is never one-sided. You shouldn’t do good things for the attention that you get for it. We dress it up with pretty terms like “pay it forward” (and let me clear...I love the pay it forward concept), but then we tell about what we’ve done. We don’t have to do that to receive blessings. Furthermore, we shouldn’t be doing good deeds to receive blessings. That’s just an added perk.
Scripture describing this exact situation Tells us what to do:
Matthew 6: 1-4 spells it out for us.
I remembered that scripture as I read the following message the other day, and I felt inspired to share to share them both.
The world is not all bad. I read another post about how we shouldn’t present this picture of doom and gloom to our kids. I agree with that whole heartedly. We are living in a good world created by God, but there is evil here. We just have to ignore it and work to not accept it. When you don’t, you find yourself and your works tainted. I’ve let myself be tainted too many times, and that’s on me. When we are doing things for the RIGHT reasons, then all the other things fall away. In the end, you may not get the attention from doing those good things from PEOPLE, but you will be inherently blessed with good character and reputation of goodness that will take care of those times (or at least get you through) when the world tries to slip in. I’m guilty of LETTING the world get to me, and that’s when I get confused and take my eyes off the goal. It doesn’t take much to get me whipped back into shape, because I can’t live that way. It is a miserable place to be, and I refuse to be there. That’s not what God wants for me, and that’s not what I want for myself or my family. I don’t need others to say how giving I am or all the good deeds I do. I am perfectly fine with the the good feeling I get when doing good. I just need people to know my character. I want to encourage people to dedicate their lives to God, and I absolutely do NOT want to discourage people from doing that because I have let the world in my life.
In closing, I want to ask you to think about where in life and in this world you want to be when the trumpet sounds. Do you want to be in the middle of complaining about how wrong someone has done you; or yelling at your kids for not cleaning their rooms to your liking? Do you want be on a political rant? Do you want to be doing something that speaks negatively about who you are as a person and who you’re not as a Christia n? I have thought about this for a long time. I want to be in the middle of time well spent with my kids and my husband. I don’t care what the activity is as long as it‘s for the good of our hearts and furthering our walk with God.
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