“So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time
we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Therefore,
whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to
everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.”
(Galatians 6:9-10)
Thoughts… Sometimes you just don’t feel like doing good! Am I right—or is it just me?
I think that’s what Paul means when he uses the word “tired.” There are times when you feel tired of doing the right thing. There are times, honestly, when you feel like doing bad—like grousing at your family, running a red light when it’s late at night and there’s no one around, eating a chocolate covered peanut out of the bulk food bin without paying for it, drinking directly out of the juice container rather than using a glass—or worse!
That’s just a part of what it means to live as a fallen human being in a broken, messed up world. Doing good all the time isn’t the easiest thing to do. Giving into your fleshly feelings is.
Being a Christ-follower, however, means being ruled not by a feeling, but by a law, a higher law. Paul describes that higher law throughout Galatians when he speaks of the law of servanthood (5:13), the law of love (5:14), the law of Christ (6:2), and in our verse today, the law of sowing and reaping (6:7-9).
To be an authentic follower of Jesus, to live as Jesus would, to think as Jesus thought, and to do as Jesus did, means to treat these higher laws just as you would the laws that rule our universe. For instance, I’ll bet you dollars to doughnuts that you’re not going to go up to the roof of your house today and defy the law of gravity. You might feel like flying, you might feel like the weightlessness would be a cool thing, but you are not going to challenge the higher law that outweighs your want of weightlessness. There is a name for people who do that—dead!
So it is with doing good. You don’t always feel like doing good, but there is a higher law to which you must serve. In this case, it is the law of sowing and reaping. When you don’t feel like doing good, you remember that there will be a harvest of blessing in due season for sowing seeds of good in the present. Therefore, serving the higher law means that you put your feelings aside and simply “will” yourself to do good.
Now by and large, there is an interesting thing that happens when you grab your “want to” by your “will to” and do what these higher laws are calling you to do: Your feelings begin to line up behind your actions. If you act like Christ, you begin to feel good about it. And when you string enough good acts together until those corresponding good feelings begin to follow, you will to live at a pretty high level of joy. Plus, you make God pretty happy as well—and that’s always a good thing.
So go out of your way to be a do-gooder today—even if you don’t feel like it. It’s the law!
Prayer… Father, today I will find some good things to do, because that is simply what the law of Christ is all about. I will love someone who isn’t too lovable. I will serve someone when I feel kind of selfish. I will do good for someone with no thought of repayment. By my actions, help me to fulfill your law today.
One More Thing… “Grab your ‘wanter’ by your ‘willer’ and make yourself do what you know you ought to do, and God will help you do it.” —Paul Faulkner
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