“He that diligently seeks good procures favor: but he that seeks mischief, it shall come to him.” KJV
“He who seeks good finds goodwill, but evil comes to him who searches for it.” NIV One day I came across the text printed above and it begged to be written about. It is telling us that if we seek the good and the right, we will find them and that if we seek mischief and evil, we will find those too. I am asking you, as well as myself, “What Are You Seeking?” If you are seeking to do good, you are seeking the will of God for your life. It is for sure that if we are seeking to do God’s will for us that we will do good. Now, I know that no one perfectly follows the will of God, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t seek to do it. If we are going to do good in this life, we must find out what it is that God wants us to do and do it. Sometimes it seems that God’s will leads us into trouble. I think that Paul would say that this is certainly true. Paul did God’s will and he found a lot of opposition, but he kept on doing it. A lot of good came to Paul when He found God’s will and did it. He lived a victorious Christian life, wrote about one-third of the New Testament, founded several churches and, though he had hardships, he had the reward of knowing that God was pleased with his life. At the end of his life, Paul wrote: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: 8. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:7-8) Seek God’s will for your life. If you want to seek the good in your life you need to love people and seek to do good to and for them. Jesus threw out a challenge to His disciples in Matthew 5:16 to do just this: “Let your light so shine before (people) that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” How can we let our lights shine? We do it by how we treat people and whether or not we seek to do good to them or to bring harm to them. In Matthew 5:44, Jesus expanded on this idea: “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.”Are you seeking to do good to and for others, even those with whom you disagree, or even those who hate you? If you want to seek to do good, follow the example of Jesus. I know that we are not saved by following Jesus’ example, but by faith in Him, but if we want to live lives that honor Christ, we will follow His example. Jesus did good for all who came across His path. He did good for the rich man Zacchaeus, and He did good for the poor woman who merely touched the hem of his garment and was healed. In John 4 Jesus witnessed to the woman at the well, even though her life was in shambles because of wrecked marriages and an illicit relationship with another man. Read the Gospels and you will see that Jesus always went about doing good for all who came across His path. If we follow the example of Jesus, we will not fail to love people and do good to them, even though they might not “be like us.” The promise of the text is that if we seek to do good, good will come back to us, and if we seek to do evil that will come back to us as well. Those who live genuine Christian lives, seek to do good – period. Bro. Joe
1 Comment
Margaret M Jones
3/1/2016 08:29:33 am
Good message this morning. Glad that you are improving
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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