How appreciated have you been feeling? How valued do you feel you are to others in your job, your family, or other places in your life?
When working at my first job at a local pizza place, I was ambitious. I cared about my staff when I was placed in a management position, and I valued my customers above it all. I wanted our restaurant to be known for its quality product, service, and hospitality, but there seemed to be some things that prevented that. I clashed with my boss frequently. He had demanded of me what I deemed as unfair and insignificant, and I felt that he was not appreciated my ideas and didn’t value what I brought to the team from a management position. It created what, for me, became a very hostile work environment that ruins the morale and the ambition that the team I led, and I, had developed. I was frustrated with how I felt invisible and like all my efforts were wasted. All the hours, detailed thoughts, and dreams I had put in were wasted by a work environment that seemed to kill ambition. I realized years later that it was hard for me to find the same level of ambition as I once had. I went to work at a bank, and though I cared about the job and I had a heart for customers, I didn’t seem to go above and beyond like I did years before. What happened?
A negative experience stole my willingness to do good for others in a passionate way.
I had subconsciously become convinced that my labor would be in vain, as it would not be appreciated by others. Have you been there? There are people we interact with that take and never give. You pour into them, and they never pour into you. You may have felt like people walk over you and take advantage of your well-intended and caring heart. While these are authentic and frustrating experiences, as believers, we need to learn how to continue running the race set before us regardless of the speed bumps along the way.
Galatians 6:9 “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
Doing good often becomes exhausting. You either get tired of the labor that comes with good deeds, or you become tired when you are seeking to do good and don’t immediately bear fruit.
As athletes compete, it can become complicated to compete with high intensity and discipline while maintaining a positive level of grace and humility, and character.
As coaches, navigating the waters of your goals and vision for your team and your athletes can be overwhelming. You may desire to win the state championship…which is a positive desire, as Paul says that we ought to run the race before us and compete for the prize, but we also desire to keep a friendly and welcoming relationship with our athletes.
As employees, we must balance being team players and bringing in our desires for the company. It is a good thing to desire the best for the company, but we have to be careful not to grow weary when our ideas are rejected, and we don’t feel heard.
As children in God’s Kingdom, doing good stretches farther than the court or the field, the office, or even the home. It reaches into every step we take. This means that doing good because of our love for God and others must be the trademark of the believer in any circumstance we find ourselves in.
What might provide the potential of weariness to our good deeds? It’s the hostile world we live in, with low expectations and even lower standards of conduct. As we all know, God demands more love and service from His children. He asks for obedience that takes us above and beyond the expectations of others.
- Doing good should fuel our soul, as it is done in the name of Jesus.
- We will grow weary when we do it for any other reason. When we do good acts in the name of kindness or shallow love, we will run out very quickly. The good we do for others can begin to fuel our souls when we know we are doing it because of Jesus’ glory and name.
- Doing good should energize our passions as we seek to glorify God.
- Obedience to God should be the primary goal of all believers. If this is our goal, we will seek to glorify God, which will draw us to loving God and loving our neighbor. We will follow the Lord’s commands and realize that to glorify God; we must do good to others. This will energize our passions because we are not seeking our glory or that of someone else in this life but the glory of God Almighty, the Lord Jesus Christ.
- Doing good should arrange priorities, as we seek first the Kingdom.
- When we are seeking to obey and glorify God, we will prioritize Him in our lives. When Jesus says to seek first the Kingdom, it’s a statement that reaches the heart of our priorities, but it also carries a sense of security. We can rest assured that when we seek first the Kingdom, all of the good that we do, is done with the right intention and motivation. We seek the Kingdom first, and we use our lives to help others do the same, and in that way, God helps us glorify Him more.
When we are doing good, we must focus more on who is behind our good works and not how our works are received. The Lord will not judge us according to how our evangelism was received, but He will judge whether or not we were faithful in sharing the good news with others. We can become weary of doing good when we are rejected, denied, or ignored, but we don’t do good for the response we will receive. Paul defines an apparent reason and motivation for the good that we do for others.
Paul suggests that we will not grow weary when we remember a simple yet powerful truth. Doing good does not reap the harvest that we always desire immediately. I’m sure as Paul wrote this letter to the Galatians, He was thinking of times when we didn’t feel like evangelizing. I’m sure he had heard stories of people at these churches giving up on people who were not growing or receiving the message of reconciliation. Paul exhorts the Galatians, and he exhorts us to keep on striving. To keep doing what is good. To continue in the faithful ministry of the Word to the believers and continue in the faithful work of the great commission. Paul reminds us that at the proper time, we will reap a harvest. This means we have to develop a fruit of the Spirit that seems to be a common struggle. Patience. This means we are to do good while practicing patience. We may be rejected when we share, but we are to be patient with the person; we are to be patient with the Lord’s Will for that person. We do not give up when we face rejection or feel underappreciated or valued. We must trust that the Lord will give the increase to our labor. We must be faithful in planting and trusting in our faithful God to give the increase.
There is always a time we will doubt, we will fear and will worry that our labor is in vain. There are times in ministry when ministers naturally doubt how they are being used and fear that they are not doing enough or doing the right thing.
Consider this: Rest with confident faith today because of your promised Hope for tomorrow.
If God’s plans and promises for your future are perfect, His position for you today is perfect too. Do good today, anticipated your reward that is coming. I consider the fact that if I trust that God is producing something good out of my life, all I can do is be faithful and obedient to Him today and let Him decide everything else.
Have confidence in the Lord that when you labor in His name, it will never be in vain. As you coach, as you lead, as you work at your job, and as you lead your family at home. As you seek the Lord and minister to others, don’t grow weary in doing good.
1 Corinthians 1:9 “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”
