Daily Devotions
What Makes For a Good Day?
Reading for November 20th: Acts 18-20
In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive."
Acts 20:35
What makes for a good day?
Most of us would think about doing the things that we enjoy:
- Shopping.
- Playing sports.
- Watching a movie.
- Reading a book.
- Listening to music.
But who among us would think of something like this:
- Visiting a shut-in.
- Helping a handicapped person at the store.
- Encouraging someone struggling with a spiritual problem.
- Taking a fatherless child out for the day.
- Cutting grass for a widow.
Jesus had a social life. He went to a wedding feast (John 2:1-2). We see him at dinner parties numerous times (Luke 5:29; 7:36; 14:1). We can rightly conclude from this that Jesus would approve of those enjoyable things we put in our first list above.
However, seeing that he said it is more blessed to give than to receive, he would tell us we would find more ultimate enjoyment in life if we would spend more time doing things on the second list than the first.
More than that, Jesus would likely see life not as we are considering it now (that is first list versus second list). Rather he would combine the two lists and serve others while doing the things he enjoyed (Luke 14:12-14).
Father God, help us to integrate everything we do, even our free time, into our service to you and thus find true blessedness.
