Doing Good

As I read this scripture today, I suddenly had a thought I’d never had before. I realised that the righteous have done good things and haven't kept track of what they'd done! They didn't say, "Yes, I know! I worked in the prisons, I worked in the soup kitchen, I gave the beggar a coin!" They said, “When did we do that?” They didn't remember!

Sometimes, I’ve done a good deed for someone and felt so good about it that I still remember it. There’s a sense of, “I did the right thing in that situation!” Interestingly enough, it seems the situations I remember, others forget. But occasionally someone has told me how years ago something I said or did made a difference in his or her life, and it’s always something that I don’t remember doing. It made me stop to wonder if maybe the things that we’re proud of don’t actually get credited to our account for the Day of Judgment! I think it really comes down to our heart attitude. If we’re doing good from a heart that’s right, we won’t even remember it, but God does, and these are the things that He’ll credit to us.

Scripture tells us many times that God looks on the heart and it’s our heart attitude that’s important to Him. David says in Psalm 139:23, ‘Search me, God, and know my heart’. Let’s pray that God would show us what’s in our hearts, and help us to get rid of our self-serving attitudes and motivations, that we can do good and not keep our own records. Let’s leave it to God to record out good deeds and press on to love and serve God, and those around us.