Doing Good

There is no job more important or more difficult than being a parent. Several reasons come to mind for this, but one of the biggest is that children are with you 24/7. They see you at your best and your worst. They see the public you and the private. When it gets down to it, they see whether you give lip service to your Christian faith or if you practice what you preach. And it isn’t the big things that matter to children. It is those little choices, the things that most people would write off as just being human. These little things also matter to God. In fact, the Bible spells them out.

In Titus chapter three, Paul approaches these activities from two directions: mission and motive. The mission of doing good is explored as he gives a detailed list of what he means by “doing good” in verses 1-3 and 8. In the middle of this is the motive. Paul lays out for us in a clear way what should be behind our desire to do good. What motivates you? Is it duty, fear of judgment, or a grateful response to what God has done for you?

PRAYER: I praise You, God, for Your mercy and for washing me clean by Your Spirit. Help me devote myself to doing what is good all the time so that no matter what little eyes are looking my way, all they will see is a trustworthy follower of the One who justifies.

“But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, he saved us not by works of righteousness that we have done but on the basis of his mercy, through the washing of the new birth and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us in full measure through Jesus Christ our Savior. And so, since we have been justified by his grace, we become heirs with the confident expectation of eternal life,” Titus 3:4-6 NET.

Cheri Cowell was chosen as one of six Christian journalists for an Israeli Ministry of Tourism sponsored tour of the Holy Land in November 2009. To learn more about Cheri’s ministry, visit her website www.CheriCowell.com