As for Me and My House – Day 16
DAY 16: DOING GOOD TO OTHERS
Hebrews 13:16
And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
Eighteenth-century English cleric John Wesley had this for his rule of life:
Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can.
His contemporary, writer and poet John Keble, wrote that going out and doing something kind for somebody is a “medicine that never fails to cure” despondency. “To test it, try it. Your visit to the sick, the bereaved, the disheartened, and the lonely, will kindle fires of love and hope upon your own desolate hearth.”
Keble believed that Jesus was cheerful partially because he “went about doing good” (Acts 10:38). Remember that doing good for others frees us from bondage to our self-centered gloom.
QUESTIONS What do you do when you are down? What do you think? Will you visit the sick, bereaved and disheartened?
PRAYER Lord, help me get out of my own little world. Help me to see and share from the abundance of what You have lavished on me. When I am down, let me light a fire in my “desolate hearth” by doing for others as You did.
ACTION Take a moment to pray and think of someone you can do something good for. They may be a close friend or someone in your neighborhood. Maybe you can call them or write them a letter or purchase groceries for them. Do it now!