Love in Action

Daily Devotional

Doing good!

”How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.” Acts 10:38

Years ago I heard a minister speak about doing good. He had often spoken about topics in the bible that were seldom discussed and he used a lot of language that might be called colorful street language. But I remember on one occasion he was very distraught about the fate of young black males who were dying at a high rate in his city. They not only suffered violence at the hands of one another, but they seemed to be considered as refuse by those in positions of power and influence. No one seemed to be concerned about their plight. He seemed to be at a loss for how to get others to pray for and concern themselves with the plight of these young black males in the inner city. I remember the words he left with us, he was pleading with us to “just do good.” That is a simple message that should not be hard to follow if our intentions are right.

The Bible tells us that Jesus of Nazareth went about doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil because God was with Him. Likewise, John Wesley encourages us in like manner to do good saying,

“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.”

If we take Wesley’s advice, even though people may find us strange, different, or a bit odd, they will still take note of our good works as they did Christ and the Wesleys and glorify our Heavenly Father.