Recently, God has been teaching me about doing good deeds and being thoughtful towards other people. This is what He has shown me: to do it for the Lord, not to look good in other people's eyes. There are a couple of verses that really reach out to me about this:
"For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ."
~Galatians 1:10
"Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ, not by way of eyeservi ce, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart."
~Ephesians 6:5-6
"Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve."
~Colossians 3:23-24
Yeah, I liked to be praised for doing something out of the blue, but I need to focus on what really matters. God should be my first priority.
There's an acronym about this. JOY. J is for Jesus, O is for Others, and Y is for You. Without realizing it, I was spelling this acronym backwards because helping others ultimately made me feel good when I got praise for it.
I confess this needs to change, so if ever I do a good deed for ya'll, you don't have to thank me. Thank God instead. All the glory goes to Him because He is the definition of goodness!
"For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ."
~Galatians 1:10
"Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ, not by way of eyeservi ce, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart."
~Ephesians 6:5-6
"Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve."
~Colossians 3:23-24
Yeah, I liked to be praised for doing something out of the blue, but I need to focus on what really matters. God should be my first priority.
There's an acronym about this. JOY. J is for Jesus, O is for Others, and Y is for You. Without realizing it, I was spelling this acronym backwards because helping others ultimately made me feel good when I got praise for it.
I confess this needs to change, so if ever I do a good deed for ya'll, you don't have to thank me. Thank God instead. All the glory goes to Him because He is the definition of goodness!
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Recently, I've been learning how to grasp God's joy and live contently in every circumstance. Basically, just relying on God for my happiness instead of worldy things. I never thought about how helping others brings joy, though. I've been so focused on myself and growing in my realtionship with God, that I didn't realize how it could include others, too. That's definitely a hard goal to have, since we are naturally selfish by human nature. A verse I just memorized is 2 Corinthians 3:18 "And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." The part that jumped out at me was where it says "his likeness." Can you imagine? We are being transformed into God's likeness?! That is so cool to look at and with that comes His love. We are called to love like Christ. Of course, His love is perfect and we can't attain that... but we need to think about WWJD (what would Jesus do?). Since God is love, He does everything in love. 1 Corinthians 16:14 "do everything in love" (another great memory verse! ;) ). I think that we certainly cannot help others without love. That's a great goal Lisa! Keep up the good deeds and glorifying God. He deserves every bit of it!
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